HELP: Customs withhold my GUITAR!

[faceless]

Hi all,

I need advise on my current situation. I purchased a guitar thru TGP from a private seller. All went well with the transaction, I paid thru Paypal and he shipped the item thru USPS.

I just now received an email saying this:

RE : NOTIFICATION FOR PAYMENT OF GST AND/OR DUTY (TR)
ITEM NO(S):
1. The above 1 article(s) consigned to you has/have been detained by Immigration & Checkpoints
Authority(ICA) for assessment of taxes payable.
2. You can appoint Singapore Post to act on your behalf as Customs clearance agent by signing
the authorization form below. Please provide the following document(s) by faxing them to 6745
3632 or email to g-dps@singpost.com to facilitate clearance.
i) Commercial Invoice(s) or proof of purchase(s) 1 to show contents and their value.
ii) Import Permit issued by the Controlling Agency, if any.
3. Upon clearing your item(s), Singapore Post will invoice you:
i) The Administration Fee of S$10.
ii) Handling Charge of $5 is applicable except for payment by GIRO.

5.
Alternatively, you can self-collect at the ICA office at the Singapore Post Centre(SPC), 10
Eunos Road 8 #01-04, Singapore 408600 for payment of taxes and clearance of your parcel(s).
ICA office operation hours are form 8:30 am to 5:30pm (Mon - Fri) 8:30am to 1:30pm (Sat).
ICA office are closed on Sundays and Public Holidays.
6.
To facilitate clearance at ICA office as at SPC, you are requested to bring along the following:
Note : Duty and GST amount is payable by NETS, Cashcard, IBG and Visa/Master
card.
i) Commercial invoice(s) or confirmation slips printed from website of internet portal(with
values of goods stated).
ii) This notification letter and company stamp(if applicable).


My problem now is, the Paypal transaction denotes the total amount I paid the seller, that is 1700USD, but the seller has declared the item as a gift and valued at 400. If I print the paypal transaction as a form of invoice, then it will not match up w/ the current information in the shipping. Part of the paypal transaction include this:


Customs Details
Guitar 1 $400.00 USD 31 lbs 0 oz United States
Customs Currency: USD
Package Content Type: Gift

What shall I do?

Thanks.

 

[RayKnight]

Just tell them the situation. I'm sure they'll be understanding enough as long as you have the invoice and etc. Just claim the seller probably assigned his relative to ship the item to you as he's busy and there may be mistakes but convince them otherwise and be helpful on your part. If all else fails, post here again.

 

[mrekoj]

if you wanna try your luck, you can tell them it is a gift of 400 bucks.
they may just tax you on the 400 USD for GST without looking at the receipt.

if that fails, come back another day with your paypal receipt.

 

[faceless]

I talked to the seller and he sent me an edited copy of our paypal transaction/invoice, showing the under declared value of the item. Now I am confused, shall i use the edited one or the original one. It's a matter of 100SGD difference tho.


@RayKnight:

I understand that would be the righteous thing to do, since I will be presenting the correct amount and pay the corresponding GST. However, I need to know if there is a way for them to know the value of the guitar, without an invoice. Because from what I gather, the customs with held the item because there is no basis for them to compute the GST. I am afraid, they might see the 1700USD value somewhere along the documents that the seller has included in the shipping if they will open the package infront of me. I know paying less will be great, but the consequences of risking it will be fatal.


@mrekoj

I plan to do that too, but then again, if I fail the first time then how? can i convince them the second time i go there, that I paid the item instead of a gift. And of course, no other way than showing them the invoice that amounts to 1700USD or the edited one instead.

Thanks for your input guys!

I hope to hear a similar experiences too, on what others did in this same situation.

 

[faceless]

So I finally went to Paya Lebar ICA. Morning before 8:30.

When I reached, there is only 1 lady officer working so I took the chance to give her the printed email. It just took 20 minutes to have it all done. I showed her a copy of the paypal transaction and she asked me to pay the GST. No questions asked, other than she offered me to use their exchange rate, USD=SGD as a basis for the GST, which is quite cheaper compared to the paypal conversion. She did not even glanced at the declared value at all.

Since the guitar was heavy and I hate to take the MRT hauling a big box, I took a cab instead.

Thanks for all who chimed in, lesson learned, better to ask the seller to include the sales invoice and shipping form, so that it will not be detained at ICA especially if the declared value is 400SGD+, and for obvious reasons that your package is not suspicious at all.