Hey OzBargain,
My family is travelling overseas for a family wedding in a few days.
We have a large amount of gold in Aus which we would like to take with us for investment purposes overseas.
Gold is roughly valued at $45k-50k AUD.
Is there any procedure to take such a quantity through customs and are there any risks associated if we are also travelling through Bangkok and Hong Kong (both stopovers) customs as well? If anyone has knowledge or experience please help me out.
Thanks
Roughly a 80:20 split in gold bars and jewellery, respectively.
The bars are mostly 1 ounce bars but there are a few heavier coins and bars.
More than worrying about the government, you wont be covered by many travel insurance companies, if this is lost or stolen.
However, the coins maybe declarable, if they are legal tender. (but based on the face value of the coins) eg $200 gold coin with gold value of $1000 would be declared at face value ($200 ea) if you had enough to equal $10000 with other currency.
Interesting question. Google searches in customs and Gold bars seem to indicate that you don't have to declare them as they are not currency.
I'd call up to double check.
Yeah I think this is the best course of action, thanks!
Yeah, the Oz gummints just lets any amount of gold travel through customs, that seems legit.
I'd be extremely careful doing this, you wouldnt want it to be confiscated for some reason.
Wasn't this the whole premise of Goldfinger? Aren't there issues with transporting gold internationally because the Gold market varies in each country?
Some customs forms use the term 'financial instruments' or cash equivalent for declaration which would include gold.
If your family is going,check the declaration value and split it among family members and declare it. From the Australian end, I wouldn't be too worried, you just need to declare it and they might check. I would worry mainly on the inbound end.
Thanks, I will do some more research on this and get a proper valuation done on the goods.
Do remember that it's not like GST etc. It's perfectly legal to carry, say five times the declaration requirement amount,you just have to declare it and answer some questions. In my own case, I would carry it myself and declare the lot in Hong Kong, Singapore or USA, but would probably avoid transiting in Bangkok altogether.
I love these kind of posts…
Dear OzB,
I'm trying to do something shonky, so rather than ring DFAT for proper advice and risk giving them the heads-up that I'm possibly doing something illegal, I'll ask the OzB community.
So how do I sneak illegal money outta the country without them gubbermints knowing…Fanks
But with so many here are used to "gaming" - the system, where else could you go for such advice?
And please we have the major "gummints" promoter here, so please dont make "thinks" worse by mispelling it as "gubbermint" Fanks also 😄
My post has attracted quite the rebuke from you. Why jump the gun and assume that my family's assets are illegal? I wasn't aware owning precious metals was illegal.
And fyi this post was created around 9:00 PM to get advice so I could proceed with the appropriate actions in the coming days prior to travelling. I cannot contact DFAT at 9:00 PM to query about precious metals.
Shitpost/10
Dont forget to claim TRS lol
Oh I wish, but the gold wasn't purchased here. It's been brought over from overseas over several years.
Don't know about the technical stuff, but I'd be keeping gold in my carry on, you never know if your checked luggage might just go "missing".
$45k-50k AUD of gold is about 1 kg. Split it between 2 or 3 family members and carry it in money belts under your clothes next to your body.
Even carry on luggage can disappear.
The gold will set off metal detectors. Do not take off the money belts at security checks, just explain and ask them to pat you down. If you take off the belts, there is too much risk in losing the gold.
Good comment Redmond not letting money belt leave your hands. In times past, I was stopped in Bangkok for carrying sml gold ignots & coins (gold shows up very bright in the scanner). I was able to convince them the gold was to have made into personal jewellery in India. When I arrived in India @ 2am, however, the gold was an even bigger issue. Whilst they acknowledged I "could" be using it to get personal jewellery made, they were upset I wasn't buying Indian gold for this purpose. Gold was extremely difficult to obtain in India at the time, so I was somewhat perplexed by the reasoning, but, as anyone who has been to India will know, their form of reasoning differs from that with which Aussies are familiar. The gold coins were returned, classified as "international currency". Gold ignots placed in safe until head honcho came in & I could be interviewed by him. It was a somewhat gruelling interview as (a) I was exhausted (b) armed Army SAS types accompanied him & (c) he accused me of planning on taking the gold to Kashmir to help arm that state's Muslim "guerrillas". It took me a bit to recover from that accusation. I had been a tourist in Kashmir on a previous trip (he had a file on me from that holiday, apparently India kept files on most foreigners travelling to Kashmir at that flashpoint time) & had travelled to Ladak but had not (to my knowledge) interacted with any "guerillas". My gold was finally returned when he reluctantly agreed to phone my b/f (a jeweller, who was, fortunately, Hindu) & my b/f could confirm he had stones waiting to be set into jewellery for me. Long story short, other countries may have their own reasons for checking out gold carried by international visitors.
A money belt will definitely be "leaving your hands" to go via the security scanner. I used to wear a money belt, but the scanners will not allow it now. You would never check-in something so precious. AND, you have stopovers in BKK and HKG. I don't think you thought this through carefully enough. What are you going to do with it whilst wandering around in BKK's heat and humidity for example? Hotel safes are not safe, especially in Asia.
At least when going through scanners etc, split up a bit so that someone can always have eyes on the package.
Is it ingots or jewellery?