Household goods and customs: why they are not taxed like merchandise

When a container reaches a port, customs does not see “a move”. It sees a list of goods with declared values and decides which regime they enter under. That distinction determines whether you pay duty on everything, on part of it, or on none of it.

Used household goods are not merchandise

Most countries separate importing merchandise for sale from importing the used household goods of a person relocating their residence. The second case usually has its own regime, and in many destinations that includes full or partial exemption from duty.

The underlying idea is simple: someone moving house is not trading, they are bringing their home. The catch is that this has to be proven with documents about the person, not with a list of furniture.

What gets proven, and with what

Requirements vary by country, but the pattern repeats:

• That you are genuinely relocating. Visa, residence permit, employment contract, registration. A tourist does not import household goods.
• That the goods are yours and used. This is where people get caught out: many countries require the goods to have been owned for a minimum period, and anything bought new just before moving can fall outside the benefit and be taxed as merchandise.
• That it is a one-off. Household goods exemption is usually unrepeatable, or has a long waiting period before it can be used again.
• Deadlines. There is nearly always a window between your arrival in the country and the arrival of the shipment. Outside that window, the special regime stops applying.

The inventory decides

This is the point that costs money when it is done badly. Customs clears against a valued inventory, built piece by piece during packing. That same document underpins the insurance and gets checked at delivery.

A carelessly built inventory (boxes labelled “sundries”, values guessed) is the most common cause of a hold at port. And while the cargo is held, storage charges run, paid by the owner of the goods and counted in days.

On declaring a low value

It is tempting and it is a bad idea, for two separate reasons.

The first is obvious: if customs inspects and what they find does not match what was declared, the problem stops being fiscal.

The second almost nobody thinks about in time: the declared value is also the ceiling on what insurance pays. If you undervalue the shipment to save on duty and the container is damaged, the settlement is calculated on that low figure. You save once and lose the other time, usually by more.

Import clearance is not done by your moving company

The import declaration is filed by an agent in the destination country, who knows the rules there and is licensed to file. We appoint and coordinate them, and that is the practical difference between buying door-to-door and buying freight only: in the second case, finding and negotiating with that agent is your problem.

What can be known in advance

There is no general duty figure: it depends on the country, the regime that applies and the declared value. But it can be estimated for your specific case before the container sails, and that is what a serious quote should include.

A quote that says nothing about destination duties is not cheap. It has left out part of the cost, which will show up anyway, with the cargo already at the port and no room left to decide anything else.