Duty points to ponder when receiving a gift from overseas

Is a gift really a gift if it’s sent from overseas? Receiving a gift – especially one from overseas – is something exciting. Picture the scene, you receive a slip from the post office (which always delivers) and start wondering what it is. You go to collect your parcel, and the smiling postal worker gives you another slip asking for ... Customs duty. You then find out that the gift you have been so excited to open has already been opened by Customs. They then proceed to demand you pay duty on your ‘gift’. When presented with such a situation, it’s important to remember that in terms of Rebate Item 412.10 of Schedule 4 to the Customs and Excise Act 91 of 1964 (“the Act”), you are entitled to receive a full rebate of duty on “bona fide” unsolicited gifts of not more than two parcels per person per calendar year of which the value per parcel does not exceed R400 (excluding goods contained in passenger baggage, wine, spirits and manufactured tobacco (including cigarettes and cigars)) consigned by natural persons abroad to natural persons in the Republic”. In terms of section 13 of the Act, with respect to goods imported by post, any information reflected on a label or a form is taken as a declaration by the sender and the information is used in the assessment of duties. Section 13(6) of the Act allows the postmaster to detain any imported postal item under his control and have it removed to Customs where the parcel may be examined. If the goods in the parcel differ from the information declared by the sender, the goods may be liable to forfeiture. According to section 47(1) of the Act, the only gifts sent via post exempt from duty (other than those carrying a zero rate of duty), are those with a value of less than fifty cents. So next time you’re told by a friend or family member that they are sending you a gift via post, ask them what the estimated rand value of the gift is and to include the invoice in the parcel. That way if the value of the goods exceeds R400 you can be assured that Customs will assess the correct duties.