Your EMS package, due taxes and the Philippine Customs

Before I ordered an item from abroad online, I never knew that items bought with EMS should pass through the Philippine customs. I know that Ignorance is a crime, and that was a crime I don't want anyone else to commit, hence, this post.

If you are a Filipino, or even a person who lives in a country under UNESCO and are having intentions of ordering items from abroad, then you should keep reading. There are several things you must know before you order an item online. This can save you a lot cash and can make you wiser in terms of decision making.

So I bought a Chinese-English Electronic Translator Dictionary online. The package was worth $30 and around $14 dollars shipping fee. It was a small package sent through EMS. EMS is an express mailing system that sends items to anywhere in the world. But most of their items should pass through the Customs.

You must know that the Customs is not a passive area through which your item passes through. It undergoes a rigid screening, where they decide which items to tax and which not to tax. If you are like me, who hasn't had the idea which items are taxed heavily, you can try checking out the Florence Agreement. This is an agreement made by several participating countries, Philippines included, on which some items are exempted from tax. So if you have such items for delivery, then you need not worry. You'll only need to pay 40php for the Philippine Postal Handling Fee.

For other items which are not in the Florence Agreement, then there is a 50-50 chance for your items to get taxed. Here is an idea on how much tax you need to pay for an item shipped from abroad: (total USD value of the package x 10% customs dues) + (total USD value of package x 12% VAT) + (750 php customs miscellaneous fees) + (40php Philippine postal handling fee). In short, you'll have to pay more than double the declared amount of the item you bought online.

Upon the advice of those who have sent their packages, they say that if you declare an amount other than the US dollar currency, like for example, RMB or Yen, they are less likely to tax you since they will not have time to compute the real value of the item. But nonetheless if the item is above $50, then you should quite expect to be taxed. I don't know the exact parameters or criteria of the customs, I'm just sharing the things I learned from other people which can give you an idea based on their experience. Another tip from my seller and from most online people, is never to send or order items which are huge in size. The larger the size of the package, the more doubts it will create on the customs. For your information, they can open the package if they opted to.

I was quite nervous about my package. Once the package was sent by the seller, I started tracking the package in the EMS website. Here is an image that shows my package being tracked.



Normally, packages sent through EMS should only take around 5-10 days. And if you can see that the item is at the Customs, wait atleast a week more for your package. If it doesn't arrive, then something might have come up.

Your package could either be a.) Detained in the Customs. Not all areas in the Philippines have customs, so they might not ship your item to your area especially if they are going to charge you of the said taxes; you should claim your package directly from the main office in Pasay City or b.) Left at the local postal office for you to claim. This is what happened to my package. It arrived in the Customs at July 29, 2011. That's how far the EMS tracking could go. I waited patiently for my package to arrive, but after around 2 more weeks, I started worrying... If it was going to be detained in the customs, I should ride a plane from my place to Manila just to get my package and I wouldn't know how much they will charge me. It was too risky. So yesterday, August 09, 2011, I decided to call the main office of the Customs. The numbers were busy and I tried several more attempts but to no avail. I finally encountered the EMS Philippines contact numbers from google and called. I gave them the tracking number and was told that my package was already in my place since August 02, 2011.

So I called the local post office in our area and inquired about my package. It was there! But it was left there for days without informing me. I was supposed to get it myself but I decided to request the postman (who was my dad's friend) to deliver it to our home instead. So for my EMS package, I paid an extra 40 php postal handling. Thank God!

I take this incident as a great learning experience and an opportunity to share what I know with my fellowmen. If you plan to order items from abroad, make sure you're willing to pay the extra charges that would incur for the items covered by tax. For items that are tax free, then you need not worry. A constant follow-up and a reliable tracking system will keep your package from delays and being lost.