Hey all,
I will be moving to Japan in September and wanted to understand customs declarations.
I have a Ryzen Threadripper 3960X workstation that I use for my business to do work for my clients. Obviously, the value of the workstation with all the components will be well over the limit for personal affects. Combined with the prospect of taking apart the computer and putting the components back into their original boxes, this does give the perception that I will have recently bought the components (I have amazon receipts showing that these were bought in 2020).
For larger, high value, components like above, how would I best fill out the form? I was thinking about just filling out the form more conservatively and then explaining it so they say “oh, you didn’t need to declare this, you’re all set.” vs. “you didn’t declare this, now we’re going to seize it.”
One option is to sell all the hardware, but I would like to avoid that as it would cause a lot of grief in acquiring a new computer, and, setting up the software stack I need to do my work, especially when I’m trying to minimize the downtime for my clients.
Thanks for the help!
5 comments
This is a copy of your post for archive/search purposes.
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**Customs for Computer Equipment**
Hey all,
I will be moving to Japan in September and wanted to understand customs declarations.
I have a Ryzen Threadripper 3960X workstation that I use for my business to do work for my clients. Obviously, the value of the workstation with all the components will be well over the limit for personal affects. Combined with the prospect of taking apart the computer and putting the components back into their original boxes, this does give the perception that I will have recently bought the components (I have amazon receipts showing that these were bought in 2020).
For larger, high value, components like above, how would I best fill out the form? I was thinking about just filling out the form more conservatively and then explaining it so they say “oh, you didn’t need to declare this, you’re all set.” vs. “you didn’t declare this, now we’re going to seize it.”
One option is to sell all the hardware, but I would like to avoid that as it would cause a lot of grief in acquiring a new computer, and, setting up the software stack I need to do my work, especially when I’m trying to minimize the downtime for my clients.
Thanks for the help!
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I brought a $2400 laptop and $2000 egpu setup as checked baggage. As long as it’s on the list and relatively accurately declared, you shouldn’t have issues or expect to pay taxes.
Iirc, in general, the whole tax situation applies to tourism and purchasing for import/export, not relocation. Though I could be missing something.
Upvote and following as I will be doing the same with my (just slightly less good) Ryzen gaming rig in about 4 weeks when I move.
Like you I will be taking my rig apart however I will be bubble wrapping and t shirt wrapping the components. Boxes take up too much space. Will let you know how I go.
I don’t think you need to pay import costs when you’re relocating your personal items.
I was actually thinking of selling my rig for just a strong laptop potentially so I’m interested in what OP does, I do not expect my PC to survive a trip between two countries without some damage or high cost.
We disassembled two computers and packed all the components with our clothes in our checked luggage. We didn’t declare anything, and we had no issues at all. Because we were relocating, and not just tourists, we were allowed to bring that in with no need for any declaration.
Thinking back on it, we didn’t even remove the motherboard batteries! They’re not Li-Ion, so not a hazard, but hey.