30%? wtf?
how do they justify that? i thought its only 10% import duty.

er, where did u get the 10% figure?

Its been discussed in this thread before (cant remember which version) i even posted the link i think hmm..

anyway visit the Custom Department's website, you will find TONNES of tables there ...one of them states that items received from foreign countries are liable to 30% if it exceeds 1kg or RM500 in value (incl shipping).

Maybe i can share a lil info about custom taxes and etc.

Any goods that is imported from overseas needs to be declared and hence, to be declared under what you call a tariff code. There are hundreds of thousands of tariff code in which to suit million of products that are imported in every other year. Anyways, these declaration are done by the forwarding guys at UPS in KLIA or whichever country entry point where a UPS specialist forwarding guy will be designating the incoming goods tariff code that is described in the invoice. How much tax we pay heavily depends on how this forwarding guy declares the tariff code but having seen the Custom 9 form, my very few kitbag purchases so far is declared accordingly and correctly. There is a few tariff code that was used, but unfortunately, all the very few codes he used were 30% dutiable. Rule of thumb is, any form of jersey or tshirt imported is taxable 30% and its not strictly 30% but 20% + 10% import tax and sales tax respectively.

And here comes the important part. Any goods with a declared invoice value of RM500 or lesser is not dutiable, irregardless of how high the actual tax, ie. 40% or 50% tax. So its safe to say that if your purchase value is below RM500, you won't need to pay any form of tax. I've heard of cases of some of us having to pay tax even tho the value is below RM500 so you can actually refuse to accept the package and you have every right to call up the UPS call centre, tell them your goods was wrongly taxed and you will want them to re-declare the goods and let them know the invoice is below RM500. You should not pay any extra processing fees.

But one thing for sure, 9 of 10 of us here would gladly pay the tax and sign for the goods and happily open the package to unveil the new jersey tho sulking over the 30% tax and the RM25 processing fees. Yes, 30% on the total jersey purchase may seem seem meagre and most of us just pay and go but there was once my company's product was wrongly taxed and we were facing a RM38,000 tax bill to be paid where in actualy, the tax amount was only RM4-5K. Obviously we got the forwarding agent to re-declare accordingly but what im trying to say here is that you can refuse to accept the package and tell them your items was wrongly taxed.

So to say that RM400 is a safe amount is not 100% right if by the law but if you've never been taxed at this amount, i'd say you're free to continue to buy at that limit but the fact remains, RM500 is the cut off point. Another point i would like to stress is your delivery address. Some of us register our workplace as the delivery address coz nobody at home during the daytime when UPS makes the delivery. The thing is, custom officers are ESPECIALLY alert when your goods are delivered to addresses like 'Taman Perindustrian Batu Tiga' or any address resembling a business operation simply because they have reason to believe the couriered goods will be re-sold to make a profit. Its roughly the same analogy as why authorities prefer to catch business premises using pirated Microsoft software where else home users are hardly penalised using them, knowing very well that home users are one of the biggest user of computer. That does not goes to say that you can buy lots of dutiable items, address is to your home and then sell them to make a profit. You may get off once or twice but you're never gonna be that lucky. But of coz the RM500 and below rules apply here so in other words, don't abuse the system. So if you're buying things online, if you have a choice, route it to your home address or your neighbour who's always at home. Routing it to your office only raise slight suspicion it could be traded to make a profit, and that makes them detain your parcel for tax purpose.

Hope my lil info here helps to answer any newbies who're curious and want to buy online. Its safe to buy, but don't abuse the system by buying small amount in each transaction but multiple times and then selling them slightly cheaper compared to retail outlet. If you're buying for friends, again, limit your transaction to RM500.

Happy online shopping!

Hi jerseyman,

For goalkeeper's kit,

I saw there is one picture of a BPL match where VDS' jersey has MUFC on it; it was against Tottenham on Feb 02, it looked blurry but definitely not a straight line like the 2nd picture here...



While others matches it was very clear that he wore jersey that is without MUFC:



As for UCL semifinal against Barcelona, looks to me like a straight line...



Maybe you can check it out with some experts out there?

Cheers,

OK.. if giotto's explanation is a bit hard to imagine... I'll give some photos as an idea on how the customs charge the taxes on your item, if your item is unluckily marked to be taxed...

If unfortunately you're item is taxed.. you will receive this nice form from customs:


Ah... the forms from customs..

Inside it.. there are tables and boxes.. bla bla bla..



OK.. to make them clear.. I've redrawn back the tables to highlight the important points:



If you are unlucky to have your parcel being flagged by the customs.. you will receive the forms from customs..

This form is for a purchase of 1 shorts and 2 different jerseys.

As you can see.. how they tax your purchase.. is per individual items.. But for this case her, for some reason I don't know why they group 2 different jerseys (1 england shirt and 1 man utd shirt) as together as one group, when both jerseys have different values. The jerseys in item 2 are £42.17 and £22.97, while the shorts in item 1 are £13.61.

One strange point about the customs is that they have their own exchange rate that I believe is inconsistent or inaccurate as the current rate. They show it in the forms:



Mind you, this was the rate back in June 2008, but I remember clearly that the rate was actually lower.

Another mind boggling fact is how the hell do they value the item's value? The shorts were actually £13.61 but if you multiply it with the claimed exchange rate (13.61 X 6.4912) you will get a different value as declared in the form (RM101.03). Same goes for the 2 jerseys. Somehow they valued it as 241.76954, then times 2 and then you have the value for the jerseys as RM483.54. Then they tax 20% from the 2 values (for Import Duty) and you will get RM20.20 for the shorts and RM96.71 for the 2 jerseys. So you will get a total of RM116.91 (RM20.20+RM96.71). That is just for the Import Duty which is 20%

Then there's the Sales Tax (under the Other Taxes Payable). There is no Excise Duty because these items doesn't fall under this category. Sales Tax as mentioned by giotto is 10%. I have no idea on how the hell did they get the value of the 10% sales tax, but from the example above, the total is RM12.12+RM58.02 = RM70.15

Then you add up both duty tax and sales tax (RM116.91 + RM70.15) = RM187.06

Then you add RM25 more as service fee to UPS (amazing huh).. so the tax to pay to UPS (we have to pay UPS because they paid for our behalf when they collected the parcel from customs in KLIA) is RM212.06.

Really painful...

*To the mods - I'm sharing this with you guys because this is not illegal. Customs allows us to learn about it, because it is our rights to know.. maybe you can go and ask further more on how do they tax goods... Remember, it is illegal NOT TO DECLARE items.. so I don't think you can try to trick the customs other than not declaring it (by smuggling it..) so the customs officer said it is ok for me to share this information. A good self education for us.

This post has been edited by schmeichel7: Aug 29 2009, 02:23 AM

Haiya...

If you ask me.. that is because of the kitman (albert morgan) or his staff's actions.

The rules are there. Someone asked me why the jersey sometimes has MUFC and sometimes hasn't. I've told you why. Again, if albert morgan accidentally provides a UCL version of the jersey to VDS.. what else can I say?

There are even replica issues of jerseys (adidas climacool) being worn by some players out there.. what else can I say?

Want to check with other experts? They will give you the same answer.

So you want me to tell you why? Because albert morgan or his staff prepared the wrong kit (or purposely did that.. for some reason) for VDS to wear. Is it illegal in EPL rules? No idea.. maybe. Why did albert morgan or his staff did that, I am not sure.. you can ask him hihi..

*Sometimes you guys ask me tough questions I can't answer.

This post has been edited by schmeichel7: May 25 2009, 09:51 PM

I see, okay then, as long as we don't get sued...

Humans do make mistakes, maybe you are right.

Thanks and sorry for the tough one..

This post has been edited by akkmutd0711: May 25 2009, 10:00 PM

Haha, maybe my explanation was abit dry and boring. But yeah, schmikes pretty much sums up my explanation.

Bear in mind, whatever explanation given is purely legal and i've not touched anything on under declaring and stuff like that which is obviously illegal and i fully understand LYN does not condone such activies.

But schmikes, i'm scratching my head on how did they get those values in RM. I believe there's a mistake in the calculation. But as i said, next time if you suspect something amiss, you have every right to reject the parcel and ask them to re-declare.

customs really work in mysterious ways.
cos for guitars, which are obviously worth more than rm500, there is only 10% import duty to be paid.

No problem.. I understand your concerns


No la eric.. yours is great as well.. I was just helping others to imagine haha..

And yes.. I also am not sure how they calculate the values in RM... again, a good rule of thumb is to ensure your purchases are below RM500. Better if below RM400... but again, we are not always correct because there were cases where people still got taxed... haih..

Maybe if someone working in customs can help explain all this...

i think customs goes by the assumption that if you bring in multiple jerseys, its not for personal use but for re-selling, hence the sales tax etc.

Hi i would like to ask all of taikos here for advise
Last 2 weeks i won a bid at ebay for man utd kungfu jersey on ebay UK and pay via paypal.I choose royal mail signed for with tracking number. The seller charged me 8 pounds for shipping. After 1 week the seller informed me that the item already arrived in pos malaysia and waiting to deliver. After 2 days i didnt receive the item and check with the post office shows that the item already delivered. The next day i went to my local post office and to my horror, the item was signed by an unknown name. The postman claimed that he met that stranger in the lift and claimed that he knows me and signed for the item (i doubt this is true as he looked like lying and maybe claimed that item for himself) So, I've made a report with pos malaysia and been asked to wait for 6 days for them to investigate. So, I want to ask all the taikos here what should i do.
1. To open a case with ebay claiming i didnt receive the item or
2. To claim lost item claim with pos malaysia
3. Seller to claim lost item with royal post UK

Everdying,
One of the reasons of having a complicated tax structure in Malaysia is due to the fact that the government wants to protect the local industry. Wanna know whats one of the highest taxible items in Malaysia? Its actually steel, thats coz we produce steel and you can imagine how the local players gonna survive when businessman brings in steel from China or India. Secondly, rubber based products and we don't need to be reminded Malaysia is one of the biggest rubber producer and the government wants to encourage the push of local rubber instead of importing them.

So to answer your question, guitar is not something we can easily make locally therefore we need to import from overseas, hence the low tax structure on them. Similarly, you find that complicated and advance machineries have no tax because there's no local industry or manufacturer to protect. Going back to jersey, in the custom tariffs, it is not recognised as football or sport related jersey. It is only recognised as shirt that is made from fibre or synthetic material, which means 20% + 10% tax. And of coz jerseys in the eye of customs is still shirt and we don't need to be reminded how general and how wide the shirt manufacturing industry is in Malaysia. Furthermore, there are lots of local jersey manufacturers such as Eepro, Admiral or Line 7 which are competing against the international big guns like Nike/Adidas/Umbro, so again, government has to protect the smaller national players.

Comparing it to Singapore which has no natural resources and rely heavily on trading. They are a tax free island and they encourage ppl to bring in items and sell them here as well. So they don't need any complicated tax structure.

Gosh, that seriously hurts. I think the postman is lying, how can he allow a stranger to sign it? I don't think you can lodge a complain to ebay because the item did arrive in Malaysia and has been received. The best is to wait for pos malaysia's answer.

To be very fair to your seller, he's done his part in the deal. He's mailed it out and someone received it(illegally) for you. So you have no case against him.

The case is between you and Pos Malaysia, and for some stupid reasons, the postman stupidly gave out your parcel to a stranger. You should trace back who received it for you as when someone signs them, they have to state their IC number. Trace his IC number. But i sense a long and tiring process coz we know how efficient are they. Bad luck for you dude!

No point asking the ebay seller to refund, it's pos malaysia's fault.

Damn.... how can the postman be so dumb to just pass the item to a stranger....

What if the stranger leaves a fake ic number?

Too bad but you have to settle this with pos malaysia.. and if they decide to refund, you might be disappointed because they will refund based on what is declared by the seller in the customs declaration sticker pasted on the parcel. Most sellers will declare a lower value to reduce risk of being taxed. But then..... it might cause you trouble if you want to claim for refund.

Haiya...

just my luck i guess,
But my instinct tells me that the postman took the item for himself,
and its illogical to pass the item to strangers when my house is the nearest to the lift. I guess its hard to find honest people nowadays.

I still feel for you, man. I'e been wanting to get that jersey myself but it's just too exp. Did you got it with Cantona NN?

anyone pre-ordered for the MU CL finals jersey already?

Its a blank shirt. i got it around 28 pounds including shipping. As from the picture the shirt looks in mint condition and no fading at the collar.
How can i trace back the IC number as there is no name on it just a signature. one thing i noticed is the handwriting looks similar when i compare with the postman's handwriting.

This post has been edited by zaidizero: May 26 2009, 12:25 AM