Customs Tax on Gifts from Abroad

Hi, good evening!

I have a friend in Malaysia who sent me a package as gift. I believe I will have to claim it from the customs office. I would just want to know if I should be taxed. And if yes, for how much and for what purpose/s?

I tried researching on this matter online but I only found personal blog entries regarding importation of personal goods, which I believe is of a different nature with a gift. I did find a post regarding claiming of gifts which were accompanied by rants because they were asked to pay tremendous amounts. But this was way back 2010 so I wanted to know if there are any changes regarding this. And if it is really our duty, as gift recipients, to really pay for customs duties and taxes.

I hope you could help me with this. Thank you very much!

Sorry for posting this on "Business" section. I didn't know which forum this should be posted but since it's about tax, I decided maybe I should put this here. Sorry!

The custom judgement is very irregular,
sometimes fair (=rather small fee* ) ,
sometimes rediculous high demands, I suppouse to make people LEAVE their things so the custom can take it
and sometimes they just let it through without demanding anything.

* Corect is 12 % VAT (plus the custom fee** For most types of products it's just a few percent, while some "luxury" itens have very high fee.)

** Although Malaysia is within the ASEA 7 trading union, so I suppouse no custom fee

So I will still have to pay VAT despite it being a gratuitous or non-purchase transaction?

lorenruth wrote:So I will still have to pay VAT despite it being a gratuitous or non-purchase transaction?

I don't know what the ASEA 7 say about VAT.

I GUESS you have a good chance it's just let through, but I guess the biger box the biger risk they will bother

Hopefully, they'll have no interest in my package for lower charges. But knowing that I won't have to pay for customs duty is a big help. Thank you very much!

lorenruth wrote:Hopefully, they'll have no interest in my package for lower charges. But knowing that I won't have to pay for customs duty is a big help. Thank you very much!

Well. You never know with the custom Sometimes they try to get much higher pay than they are entitled too, for instance by "valuing" things much higher than the real worth...

Refer to the ASEA 7 trade deal if they try to ask to much from you