If i buy a phone less than the threshold or above the threshold but travelling with family (hence under combined threshold), will i be flagged and legally required to pay back the GST for the good.
This is for Sydney
Try Claims a phone under TRS threshold
[Deactivated] on 25/10/2019 - 12:29
Last edited 25/10/2019 - 13:14 by 1 other user
Last edited 25/10/2019 - 13:14 by 1 other user
Comments
Will you be flagged? Potentially, as Border Force will not know in advance what else you are bringing into the country. I doubt anyone on here knows the criteria used for flagging individuals for checks on return.
The important thing is to declare what you need to declare.
On a phone highly unlikely, if you regularly claim TRS and item is HV such as a 100k Hermes handbag or high end watch yes you may be flagged.
I was talking to a friend who happened to be on same flight who was flagged and customs escorted us from the baggage belt and checked everything asking where the "item" was and suspect I was carrying it.I think they have bigger fish to fry than you and a phone to be honest.
i've watched border security and when they approach you even though you are not doing anything wrong, makes you feel shit scared, even if they just look your direction
Haha mate if you got nothing to worry about just go with it, irritating as it was they are just doing their job, but they did open up all my sh!t (didnt have much) but they knew what they were looking for and kind of knew i was "the innocent bystander" so to speak…
i'll get -neg but … just let your family carry the phone on the way back and go through different queue separately
There's no need if the collective allowance is more than the phone unless the collective is exceeding the allowance.
I don't know how it works but when watching Border Security, they seem to suggest that they know when passengers are travelling together and splitting up at Customs would be dodgy.
For the random inspections, more often than not it would be plain observation. If they are not suspicious beforehand, then when they pull someone in, they look at other people and see who's watching, who else looks nervous, similar bags etc. I'm not saying they are well trained or catch everything, but if you're on the job long enough you know what to look for.
If a name is flagged before the flight however (if you take a $10,000 wedding ring out of the country having claimed GST as an example of why they would flag you), I'm sure they also flag family names on the same flight, what tickets were purchased together and know that beforehand.
If the phone is $1000 and you are a party of 2 people, you can have an allowance of 2 x $900 = $1800. So You can have your phone plus another $800 of allowance.
I never knew they tagged you but it's possible.
Plus depreciation as well.
You don't need to hide the phone. Declare it on your incoming passenger card. They will then ask you about it and all you have to do is tell them the value. They will then pool the allowable amount based on who you are travelling with ($900/adult and $450/child). If it is close to the combined limit they will then apply 20% depreciation. This is from my direct personal experience. Takes 1min.
how do you declare the phone on incoming card (like TRS refunded good)
The passenger card has a question on it something like, are you carrying goods worth more than A$900. So you just tick yes. They will then just ask you about it when you go thru. They will ask the value and how many people are travelling with you. At this point they will realise given you are in a family group you are still below the threshold. If you are close to the threshold, they just depreciate the total value by 20% as it is now 'used'. It should only take about 2mins and they are typically very nice and only after people who have large value items (i.e. in the thousands of dollars). You only need to declare it on one card not on each for your family.
If all items are under the combined threshold between family members it should be okay(?)