Korean Job Discussion Forums

[cruisemonkey]

Hello I've just started teaching here in Korea and am currently looking into buying a digital camera (to capture the beauty of this place, spot the irony). The prices here are very expensive so I've been thinking that I could get it over the web from America.
Someone mentioned that if I did so I may have to pay import taxes, would you know if this is true and if so what would I be looking at on a 400 dollar camera, also, is there a way around the duty if it does exist, ie a present from a dear old relative, not that I'd contemplate such a dastardly act as lying.

Cheers all

[elric]

The limit is $120 US or 150k won. Its like all customs clearances around the world. They look at 10% of all incoming packages because they don't have time for everything. If the declared value is above the limit they asses a fee and a tax. So a lot depends on what the sender/company "declares" as the value and contents of the package

http://english.customs.go.kr/hp/eng/travel/ebba_000/ebbd_000/ebbd_000.html

Maybe 1% of all incoming packages are opened and a value is assesed manually.