iPhones for personal useface duties
THINK carefully before bringing an iPhone or iPad across the border from Hong Kong into the mainland, as officials say the items can be taxed.
Mainland customs officials have been ordered to step up a crackdown on the smuggling of Apple devices, and people carrying iPhones or iPads are being slapped with an import duty even if they can prove they are for personal use, according to a South China Morning Post report yesterday.
Taking large quantities of electronic goods into the mainland has always been banned or subjected to heavy taxation. But the latest crackdown has extended the tax to individual users.
A Shenzhen customs official, who refused to be named, confirmed Tuesday anyone bringing one iPhone or iPad into the mainland would be charged duty.
“It’s a common misconception that you can get a tax exemption if the device you are carrying is for self use,” she said. “In fact, iPhones and iPads are among the 20 products that are excluded from tax exemption. You need to make a declaration and pay the tax even if you are bringing in only one [device].”
An American-Chinese man said he was charged duty by mainland customs officials at Luohu Checkpoint recently for an iPad he had been using for months, according to the National Business Daily.
“I showed them the documents and photos I stored in the iPad but they wouldn’t listen. In the end I had to pay 1,000 yuan [US$147] before I could leave,” the man said.
The General Administration of Customs in Beijing issued a directive Aug. 19, clarifying regulations on what visitors and mainland residents can bring into the country without paying duty.
It said mainland residents could bring in tax-free an overseas purchase valued at up to 5,000 yuan. The limit for visitors was 2,000 yuan for items they did not plan to take home. [**** strongly recommend adding a web link to where it says this - in English ****dV]
While Apple products were not directly mentioned in the directive, the Shenzhen customs officer said it was aimed at addressing rampant smuggling of iPhones and iPads from Hong Kong and Macau into the mainland.
“We started to notice a lot of people carrying [boxed] iPads and iPhones across the border since April,” she said. The number surged in July when iPhones and iPads went on sale in Hong Kong, she said. In Zhuhai, customs officers have found and taxed more than 400 iPhones and nearly 100 iPads carried by individual travellers this month alone, local media reported.
iPhones and iPads are in short supply on the mainland and prices are higher than in Hong Kong.
Paul Jiang, 28, from Beijing, who came to Hong Kong to buy an iPad, said a 64 gigabyte version cost about 6,500 yuan at home and was only HK$6,500 (US$839) in Hong Kong.
The price difference has lured visitors to Hong Kong to buy Apple products and take them back to the mainland for sale or as gifts. Given the huge volume of traffic at the border, it is difficult for customs officials to check every passenger.
Many people said they were not aware of the latest crackdown and many said they had no problem crossing the border with an iPhone in their hands.
