I have been asked (and agreed) to transport a lens to a primate researcher in Thailand. In the spirit of caution the thought has crossed my mind that there could be an issue with Thai customs because the lens is not leaving the country with me at the end of my trip. The lens is new, in original packaging (worth about $300) and is plainly not for the camera that I will have with me. Does anyone see any issue here? Yes I have checked the package and there is ONLY the lens in it!

Is the lens unusually large or heavy that it would be called into question? Other than maybe having to pay duty on it, why would you be concerned about bringing it?

There are a lot of frequent Thailand visitors on this board who may have more specific advice.

Well, if the lens is worth <i>more</i> than US$300/CAD$300, the correct answer is that the item is subject to duty, see the Thai Customs Department at http://www.customsclinic.org/. This says that if you are bringing in with you and item valued at more than 10,000 Baht (about US$302/CAD$318), the item is subject to import taxes and duties. (These items do not include used personal effects like clothing or used electronics.) A flat rate of duty will be applied on the dutiable items provided that:

• The dutiable items are intended for personal use;
• They are at a reasonable quantity and not intended for commercial use, business, or trade purposes;
• The total value is not exceeding 80,000 Baht; and
• Passengers are able to pay taxes and duties in cash on the date of arrival.

The actual duty payable does not appear to be stated, at least not anywhere I could find. It seems it would be assessed by the customs officer on the spot.

If you want to declare the item, then you need to go to the Red channel at Customs after you have been through Immigration and collected your luggage. (If you decide to declare this item and pay duty, I would indicate that is it a gift for personal use for a friend, I would not get into the whole primate centre thing, as that use may be viewed as a “business use”.)

The practical answer, of course, is just to keep the lens in your hand luggage and <i>do not declare it</i>. No one will know that you are not planning on taking it out of Thailand when you leave. If questioned, say it is your new lens that you bought for the trip and you are keeping it in the box until you need it as you don’t want it to break. (The fact that you don’t have a camera that fits it may be harder to explain…but perhaps you do.) However, the chances of a random search of your luggage when you arrive in Thailand are infinitesimal, IMO. There is no x-raying of luggage on arrival into Thailand, like in some other countries, it is just a matter of the Customs officers eyeballing travelers as they pass by. In probably 65 trips to Thailand, I have never been stopped. If it were me, I would just walk through the Green “nothing to declare” channel and head out of the airport (mentally innocently whistling as I passed by the officers).

Perhaps the best thing to do would be to have a receipt in hand indicating that the item is worth less than 10,000 Baht (or its US or Canadian Dollar equivalent), as that may resolve any issue raised about not declaring it. If it is worth more, than there would at least be a basis for calculating the duty.

Thanks Cicerone. I did not think it likely that Thailand would think it good business to be going after tourists entering the country but it is good to hear from someone who has experience. It happens that the lens cost about 9400 Baht so it is "legal". I will ask for a copy of the reciept to be on the safe side.

Less than three weeks till I go!

Actually, it sounds like Cicerone has not visited Thailand for quite some time. There are x-ray machines at customs in Bangkok - have been since it opened three years ago - and they do randomly ask people to put their bags through the scanner - I got asked to do this just a few days ago when I got back from Taiwan.

That said, if the item fits in your hand-carry, they usually don't scan that. Even if they did, it might not be questioned. They usually target people with boxes, and Thais rather than foreigners, but it seems to depend on how busy it is.

I doubt you'll have a problem, but what I do to try to avoid any issues when I bring back purchases from overseas is to remove them from any packaging, so it's harder to tell that they're new and not something I purchased in Thailand before the trip.

I agree that you will most likely not have any problem but if they do stop you or you do declare the lens as something that you will leave in the country note that the price on the invoice will only be a guideline for taxation. The actual tax will be determine by the "central" or "fixed" price that the custom department have in their database. This is to eliminate "under invoicing".

MichaelBKK, I was last in Bangkok abo9ut 4 months ago. I have never been asked to put bags through the x-ray mahcines, I think they "randonmly" ask locals to do that. I was referring to countries like India which <i>require</i> all incoming passengers to put their carry on and checked baggage through, not a case where you can be randomly asked. Being subjected to a random x-ray search can happen anywhere, including the US and Hong Kong (where there are X-ray machines at Customs as well which most people also do not notice).

Sorry for the confusion.