Hi All!
First post here.
The whole family is moving to Taiwan from Bay Area California shortly. Not much recent info that I have found here. Not an unusual situation but I am an artist(woodworker/sculptor) and musician (Many guitars, amps, recording equipment).
I have a lot of specialized equipment and I understand the import taxes are very expensive. Any thoughts on how to get around this?
I think a container will be the way to go. Anybody recommend a company?
I need a mentor!
Looking forward communications!
Taxes shouldn’t be an issue if you are shipping used personal items.
I recently shopped around until I found a shipper that would give me the type of service I needed (minimal packing on their part, although you can have some companies professionally pack everything) for a price that seemed reasonable based on my two previous international shipments. Their partner in Taiwan is ‘Asian Tigers Mobility Taiwan’, who will receive my shipment and and help to clear through customs before delivering to my TBD Taiwan address. I can certainly recommend the small local company that has packed and picked up my stuff, but I haven’t received the shipment in Taiwan so I can’t personally recommend Asian Tigers; however, since that is the company that has been chosen by the company that I have used in Canada, it is worth contacting them for a quote, I think.
The more accurately you can gauge the volume of your shipment the easier it will be to compare estimates (e.g. you can get fractions of a container instead of the whole thing). I taped off two cubic metres and downsized my stuff until it would fit in that space, so I could tell the different companies precisely how much volume I had to ship. Downsizing was an easy choice since many of my things were old and it is time to replace them anyways, your situation may be different but do consider that you can buy some things in Taiwan and so don’t need to take everything (I’ve basically discarded the kitchen, for example). Moving a family household plus an art studio you might consider an entire container (are you sending the furniture as well?), but if you just say to prospective shipping companies that you have a household and a studio I think you will get high estimates because they will have to assume there is a lot of stuff on your end.
Is that helpful?
Hello! I’m in a similar situation but up around the Seattle area. How did the move work out for you? I’m curious what shipping company you went with, how import taxes worked, etc. Would love an update! Thanks!
Excess baggage. Make sure you choose door to door. You need to label the contents of every single box. Best way to fill each box is to make a layer of stuff on and then fill the rest with shirts or towels or something soft. As for labeling eg Books, photos, negatives with towel/shirt/jacket. Each box needs a list of contents taped to it. When you arrive in TPE you need to go to customs and have them check off your list. This is how you avoid any import taxes. Your list should be pretty self explanatory.
Box 1
Box 2
Box 3
etcetera.
Customs will open a couple of the boxes to see if the contents match the description and decide whether it’s household items. Best way to make sure you don’t get taxed on your guitars and stuff is to contact customs and let them know you’re a musician and have x amount of instruments. You can then attach their response to your incoming declaration and have that stamped and signed off on.
Best of luck with the move.
I’m wondering how you went. I found the card of the shipping company that dealt with the Taiwan end for me. They were Asian Tiger International Shipping and they did door you door service.
For anyone interested in shipping from the states, we went with a company called Ship2TW
They were good. Transparent on fees/costs, and walked us through all the necessary steps. Shipped in Sep, had some delays at the port, and just arrived in TW recently (Nov).
We boxed our stuff up in Seattle and shipped it UPS to Los Angeles and they handled it from there.