Shipping a laptop from the USA to Taiwan: What's the customs procedure?

Taiwan Living in Taiwan
1

Hey folks,
I found out over the last weeks that laptops are dirt cheap on ebay USA compared to my homecountry in Europe, and shipping stuff from Ebay USA to Europe usually involves a 17% import tax which is just terrible. Taiwan on the other hand charges only 5% as far as I can see. So It’s certainly not a bad idea to buy such a device now and later carry it in my luggage home to Europe when I return.
I have a question about the customs procedure: I am currently staying in a dorm of a university. And receiving parcels usually works the way that they get dropped at the ‘security guy’ (the guy in the neat dress sitting in the small box at the entrance of the campus, I think we all know who is meant). And they will inform us via mail that something has arrived. I already received a couple of smaller parcels and that always worked smoothly. So given the case that the taiwanese customs decided to charge me the 5% import tax, what will happen? Will they keep the parcel and require me to go somewhere and pick it up, or will they still deliver it, but send along with it a bill? Is there any possibility that the ‘security guy’ at our university will be charged for the parcel and thus refuse to accept it, ending in the not-so-nice situation that it will be sent back to ‘somewhere else’ and I will be running around for ages to find out where the parcel has ended up?

And one more thing: I do have friends in the USA who could help me to ‘prepare’ the laptop in a way that the customs might end up not interested in it anymore, but this would need extra trouble. In that case my friends would need to receive the laptop first, rebox it etc. and since the import charge is only 5% and the laptop might cost 500 dollar, the gain of 25 dollar might not be worth the trouble, or what do you think?

With best wishes and thanks for any help,

Raellear

2

In order to import electronics like this you need to declare it, and provide details like the wireless card’s model number, the computer model number, whether it will stay in Taiwan or not, and some others I’m forgetting about.

If you don’t do this and they find it, they will never give it to you without these details. It’s a bad idea to even try this in my opinion and of course trying to conceal it would be illegal.

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Squall1 is right. I know someone who had something shipped from the USA with wireless capability and it got stuck in customs. Then customs sent it back to the shipper.

EDIT : They didn’t declare the wifi model or something related to the wifi device on the customs form. I believe they did contact him asking for that information, but he and the shipper were unable to provide it, so it got returned.

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Most postal/courier services will also not ship the battery.

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There’s always Fedex. Laptops you order in the USA are likely shipped from China, so they must deliver the battery with it.

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They won’t ship by air, not sure if FEDEX has a by sea option.

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I wonder how that works then as I see many eBay sellers from China shipping things with batteries all the time, phones, computers , etc. and by air mail.

Is it just sneaking past?
I ordered a laptop battery from the states and the guy labeled it laptop battery and it went through

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Considering I’ve had laptops shipped by FedEx by air to the USA from China, I know they do it. So I think you’re mistaken about that point.

They were labeled as having a battery inside.

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Maybe the no battery rule only for commercial flights then?

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I had a battery shipped to Taiwan already via UPS and that was fine.
I wonder how exactly the declaration process works. Is it possible to do that in advance, for example put a sheet of paper declaring the details of the laptop together with price etc. into the parcel, or does it have to be a kind of ‘official formular’?
Thank you so far, it has already been very helpful.

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Website will declare it with customs, so you don’t have to worry much about it if you decide to go that route.

If you’re asking the friend to ship it for you. They will have to fill out the parcel info via DHL/Fedex/UPS website or in person when they go to a courier location.

To make it easier for your friend, you can fill out all the info via courier website and just have them drop off the parcel with the printed out forms you filled out. However, the courier may request your friend to sign some things or leave some personal info, so make sure they’re ok with that.

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And better check with the NCC that the wireless model you are trying to import is actually approved for use here, otherwise it won’t pass.

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Have you considered looking for eBay sellers who will ship to Taiwan from the USA?

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Yes actually I plan to buy an used laptop that ships NOT via the global shipping program, since that only creates problems (my experience in the past). So I found a vendor who sells refurbished laptops via ebay and is willing to ship to Taiwan via UPS. In my eyes that sounds like a good option - I will ask him to declare everything in advance and since he already agreed to ship to Taiwan I assume there will be no big trouble.