How to pay Customs Taxes

Had one of my most annoyed moments a couple of weeks ago.

Well, when you're gonna be dealing with government or official branches somehow you already know you're going to be wasting alot of time and paper and somehow still get screwed -.-

All for this box:

Uuuurgh. So the story goes like this--I ordered the Acne.org products by myself for the first time (read to find out why I order Acne.org), and I wasn't familiar with shopping overseas so I can give you quite some tips now from all the blunders that I made. For example, if the website cannot process your card, it is most likely because:

1) You did not activate your card for overseas expenditure. Call your bank and they'll fix this.

2) You did not alter your spending limits. What to do, Malaysian ringgit so small mah, so overseas currency tend to be much higher than our average spending. Go to your ATM and adjust your limit.

SO I received a text from my sister telling me that my package got held at Customs *extremely glum face. Went online and found that there is this such thing where Customs hold your parcels, especially those they find heavy and undeclared so that they can charge you taxes. *glum glum glum

The dreaded letter

You can either:
1) Drive yourself and get your parcel all the way from KLIA
or
2) appoint an officer to do it for you (most likely a PosMalaysia officer)
-doing so you will be charged the taxes you have to pay for your parcel + RM50 for their "hard work"

Do bring:
1) The letter you received;
2) Your shopping invoice and
3) enough cash to pay for whatever taxes they charge you (most likely 10 percent of your total bill)
-last one's the most important because I saw a guy who did not have enough money and they told him to drive to KLIA/ LCCT to find an ATM and the parking was crayyyyyyzy

My invoice

So I bravely decided to get it myself. Loverboy drove me to KLIA (took an hour, went on Friday afternoon) and we parked at the Mail & Courier Center nearby Tune Hotel. Don't go to the wrong one cuz there's a post office nearby too. You won't miss this one because there's a HUGE sign saying "MAIL & COURIER" on the building.

The sequence was pretty much this:
Counter 2 - Counter 1 - Counter 6 - Counter 2 - Payment counter - Counter 6 - Pharmacy building - Counter 6 - Counter 2 - Counter 6 - Counter 1 - leave

Yup, in that order.

Counter 2's where you get processed, the paper counter where all the forms are filled and filed in. You'll end up there at least 3 times, if you're lucky.

Counter 1's where you get your parcel back and your visitor pass held. You can't leave the place without your visitor's pass, that's how they make sure you don't run off without paying your taxes. (trust me it's for safeguarding against people like me, they know how long their paperwork takes)

Counter 6's where you open your parcel in front of Custom officers and they check and hold your parcel until you pay your taxes.

Only people who bought cosmetics had to go to the pharmacy building (super tall building next door, 5th floor) to be cleared; though it is easy as pie, they just make sure you don't buy products for more than 3 month's usage. 

Luckily I only had to pay RM18 (for paper fees -.-) because my items were considered cosmetics and facial creams, which are non-taxable. Be sure to check whether you need to pay for your items or not; it can range from 10% to 30%.

 

Last but not least, CLEARED!

DO make sure that you have time to spend when you go, I went around 2.30pm and left just before 5 :/

Cheers!

trying out a new hairstyle; verdict: LOVE!