Korean Job Discussion Forums

[bbud656]

My parents are sending me a Kindle for a birthday gift. I think they run about $140. Any idea how much I will have to pay customs for it to clear?

[newb]

[bbud656]

Thanks, good to know!

[SMOE NSET]

I am almost 100% certain customs taxes you for anything over $150 (with shipping included in the total value).

So, either mark the value at $100 and shipping at around $20 and you will have no problems, or pay customs ($140 Kindle + $20 Shipping). I don't however know how much the tax rate is for anything over $150.

[ttompatz]

[artyom]

I had an e-book reader sent to me by my university about 2 or 3 years ago (back when e-book readers were a bit more expensive). I think that the value stated was about $200, but as I didn't pay for it the sender wrote 'gift' on the form.

I got a call from customs who asked what it was, so I explained that it was a gift for educational purposes and the official said that because it was a gift there would be no charge and sent it on.

Of course, that's just what happened to me, but it can't harm having your parents write 'gift' on the outside. If they order directly from somewhere like Amazon however, I think it might be a different story.

[deizio]

The limit is W150k (rather than US$150), so try to keep the declared value of goods & shipping under $135. If you go over and get snagged you pay around 20% on the whole value, not just the portion above 150k.

This happened to me once and they also added on another W2,500 for delivery, even though my original shipping included it. That struck me as overkill. And they didn't call me, I had to figure out how to get in touch with them after I was sure my package has been held up.