Your gift could cost you plenty
If you have friends or family overseas who are likely to post a gift to you or your loved ones, it’s worth warning them that if the gift’s declared value is more than the equivalent of R400, you’ll end up having to pay customs duty before you can get your hands on it.
That’s been SARS’s gift ceiling amount for quite some time, despite the fact that the value of Rand has plummeted.
At the time of writing, in order to avoid a resident of South Africa having to pay customs duty, the declared value of the gift can be no more than the following amounts in foreign currency, which I have rounded down:
- 30 Euros
- 32 US dollars
- 21 British pounds
- 44 NZ dollars
- 42 Aus dollars
It’s easy to see why many people unwittingly send gifts which don’t fit SARS’s definition of a gift, and cost the recipients plenty at a South African post office counter.
Cheryl Lambert, who lives in Berkshire, UK, sent her 94-year-old mother-in-law in South Africa a 50-pound Christmas gift in October. Thanks to the postal strike, it was only received last month. And then post office workers wouldn’t hand it over until the elderly woman paid R450 in customs.
“I’m so angry about it,” Lambert told In Your Corner.
“I’ve been posting gifts to her for birthdays and Christmas for 12 years from the UK and we’ve never had this, so I didn’t expect it.
“I’ve since transferred the money to her, but it’s been an expensive lesson.”
Certain products are exempt from gift status, even if their declared value is less than the equivalent of R400 - wine, spirits, tobacco products and perfume.
SARS policy stipulates a person may received two gifts a year, with a value of no more than R400 each, without being made to pay customs duty on them.
Two-year-old Rakel Parker of Amanzimtoti was sent a joint birthday and Christmas gift by her aunt in the US, but because its declared value was considerably more than the gift limit of $32, her parents, who are both disabled, have to pay almost R1000 in customs in order to collect the gift.
“Because the contents of the parcel are a gift for a little girl in South Africa, and not for resale by her parents, they do not understand why they need to pay this huge amount of money,” said the child’s grandmother, Jean Parker, in an email to In Your Corner.
Spread the word.
*For a quick and easy way to do exchange rate calculations, go to:
http://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/
For customs queries, contact SARS on 011 390 1962.
GET IN TOUCH: You can contact Wendy Knowler via email: consumer@knowler.co.za or on Twitter: @wendyknowler. She's In Your Corner for consumer issues.