Sending your personal & household items to the Philippines

Hi Rick, we have done this from Australia to central Luzon via my better halves visa status, returning Filipino living abroad for over 5 years, permanent residency in Oz and not an OFW. Aside from the shipping costs and insurance there were no duties, taxes nor any other fees.
A lot depends on your visa/s and or relationship status and what you can avail, as always research. I would also recommend if you are sending a container fill it to the brim to make it worthwhile as it as you probably know is not cheap.
There are plenty of threads on this and other sites including my contributions that will give insight, a lot of reading but hey it's a big decision and move.

https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=8405

Good luck, research and ask if unsure.

Cheers, Steve.

as i know no tax 7000 usd if more, it seem yes, tax

liubov2011 wrote:

as i know no tax 7000 usd if more, it seem yes, tax

Yes true but this figure only relates to certain visa types like SSRV and some others.
Sending a shipping container full of household goods/things on a tourist visa attracts full duties and taxes. Say on an SRRV. 7K US is exempt. While not sure of a married couple on a 13A or Balakbayan visa one would assume it would be the easiest way to bring your belongings in tax exempt.

From our experience our only option was as said, returning Filipino living abroad and avail the tax and duty exemptions: 5 years out of country as a non OFW gives a PHP 250K exemption or US 5K. OFW's have some advantages but from memory not as lucrative as the path we had to go down.
For us spending AU 8K for shipping meant fill it to justify the cost and pay the duties and taxes once in port. There were none and for us the worry was for nothing.
The reason our shipping costs were so high was that we had the container delivered and we packed it ourselves so additional trucking 3 weeks later. I have had years of experience packing and moving containers in the film industry interstate and internationally and know how to pack them, spacial awareness etc. Reflecting our choice of things to send? Yes, some things we didn't really need and would have been better off sending more things that are not available in PH. that we could have used.
We probably sent about AU 40/45K worth of goods,,,,,, furniture, art works, tools and equipment, clothes/decent linen and towels, personal items etc etc. We even sent a new rotary clothes line as I had never seen one for sale in PH. lots of things like that.

I and only my opinion would suggest to the OP, anyone contemplating shipping goods to research and do it well. Why spend US 5K to ship 5 or 7K in goods? Just an observation that requires serious research and consideration.

Cheers, Steve.

i didnt bring big enough stuff to use a shipping container, i used forex and after checking all options they were a bargain!
i would recommend using them as much as possible for smaller items,i shipped 2 flat screens with them as well as 10 large boxes of misc. things and everything arrived undamaged.
i prepped them well too. i put hand fulls of tools in each box of clothes etc to get quite a lot of tools here.the weight does not matter to them as long as 2 people can easily lift it, as long as it fits in the box -it ships.
if you use them for as much as possible it will allow you to get the smallest container possible for the other large things perhaps.Your tools will be the most important thing and ones you get here are nearly useless or temporary at best.
if i had it to do over again, i would have sold off %80 of what i paid to ship and just bought here. a lot of the things i brought are ruined now,rusted,'misplaced' books damaged from bugs etc. the sentimental things i should have given to my son in the US.
i brought a box full of silverware and we have 3 small spoons left, they only use big soup spoons here i guess the regular small table spoons were a novelty and they walked off.
the philippines seems to be rough on stuff,both the people and the weather as well as my kids!
after a few years when you look at things you brought and see them slowly deteriorating its depressing.
but just my experience,if you dont have kids or neighbors in and out or live near the ocean and salt air you may have better luck!
i would recommend you have your house complete %100 and tiled and painted and aircon before you bring anything to keep it in good a shape as possible for as long as possible.

ps-my tools are still all clean and oiled and in great shape! LOL

thought i might mention,like bigpearl said 'some things you cant get here..'

bring as much cotton as you can,sheets, pillow cases, towels, washrags etc. i have my brother in the US send me sheet sets because all the stuff i can find here are made of some chinese rayon or recycled plastic mixed with nylon or something. the sheets are stiff and make you itch until you wash them 10 or 15 times, by then they are falling apart and need replaced!
things made of %99 rayon and %1 cotton are labeled "COTTON"  but the towels resist water and the washrags feel gooey and slimy when wet. so bring COTTON .
-- almost every piece of material/clothing i have seen here 'stretches' --
and paper, they dont have trees to make paper or paper mills here,and when you go out to eat you will find at a table that seats 6, it will have SIX tiny paper napkins sometimes 3 cut in half to make 6. and if you try to wipe your mouth during a meal you will find out it ends up the size of a spit-wad at the first hint of moisture. so any paper products writing paper etc you bring will be nice to have. PAPER. printer paper,writing paper toilet paper.

cows,they dont have too many cows here. milk ,cheese,beef,butter are at a premium.

so it would be nice to bring 10 years worth of cotton and paper products still left in original packaging to stash in a closet and crack out some new stuff every christmas LOL

cheese keeps well and you could bring a lot if you like cheese(i do!) even freeze it when  you get here. but not much hope for bringing fresh milk and butter,its available in the "american" stores you'll just have to pay the price with those.

have not seen any beef since i was in manila at an outback steakhouse 2 years ago. think the last chewy beef i bought was really a water buffalo or carabow. made spagetti out of it and it tasted great,just couldn't swallow it !

Everything is fake/hybrid these days...very soon we'll have “lab-grown” chicken meat....maybe even lab grown beef who knows?
Singapore Food Agency has become the 1st agency in the world to approve the sale of cultured chicken meat grown in bioreactors ...So I guess hybrids/fakes are here to stay.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.usatod … 3791581001

lots of money to bribe customes

MovinToCebu wrote:

Other than the actual shipping cost of sending a container to the Philippines, can anyone clarify would the other fees and charges will be once the container reaches the Port of Cebu?  Ie: Customs charges, unloading & handling the container, etc...

We are looking to bring a couple major items such as our bedroom set, a safe, some tools, a dining room table and maybe a couple flat screen TV's.

When I checked (Sweden to Phils) the transport costs are huge so very few things are worth the costs to get it there, so I'm selling/give away almost everything, 2 lorry loads, 18 pickup loads and 3 hatchback loads so far. Only 3 pickuo loads left because I use some still which I will leave.  Plan to keep only a few things which can be free cargo when flying (and perhaps send a few boxes).  I have "packed" only 3 moving size boxes, sorted in 4 prioritylevels if ever and when to bring, 5 boxes so far (2 in the lowest priority level).  Plus there will be some, which I use still.   (Mainly some tools. Memory things which can't be bought. Laptops.  Trousers long enough      Perhaps some books and a lightweight canoe which can be folded much enough to get in a  box or to carry at flight     (=20 kg).   

I suppouse someone have told if you get SRRV you can get in  some without custom costs. (7000 usd worth I believe.)

Otherwice are custom costs VAT  (12 % if I remember correct) plus custom fees.  Some what they count as "luxury items" have huge custom fees, that's a part of reason some things cost very much to buy in Phils.  There can be storage fees too, which can be huge before geting things through custom, which can be har, there are "agents" who offer to hanle such things, which are suppoused to be easy... (I have been working with import/export between other countries.)  I haven't tested but I know of some, who have got very frustrated by costs just in the custom have become higher than the real value of the things!!!  Made it on purpouse to make owners leave things for free to the custom by not paying the fees...    I don't know if it has changed since Duterte fired that very corrupt custom boss.

Balikbayan boxes seem to have less problems to get through normaly if the documents are in order, but expect it can become custom fees at them too.  Earlier has the custom let them through easier than they are suppoused to, but announced  some before covid they will be more strict.

like coach said, its not really worth it to bring things here, i just sent 10 large boxes and had no fees and still wish i brought less.
personal sentimental things,TOOLS, books ,clothes,
and keep your books in large ziplock bags or they will get ruined.
i knew a guy who sent his whole house,bedroom sets, furniture etc and someone decided they were luxury items and it cost more to get in than he paid for new in the states!
cars generally cost 1.5 times the value to get in the country!
BB boxes, way to go. label them all "kitchen stuff" in black marker. no matter whats inside.

Soonretired wrote:

like coach said, its not really worth it to bring things here, i just sent 10 large boxes and had no fees and still wish i brought less.
personal sentimental things,TOOLS, books ,clothes,
and keep your books in large ziplock bags or they will get ruined.
i knew a guy who sent his whole house,bedroom sets, furniture etc and someone decided they were luxury items and it cost more to get in than he paid for new in the states!
cars generally cost 1.5 times the value to get in the country!

Yes cars have very high custom fees, being counted as "luxury". 
And it happens (often?) the custom count at prices for NEW things as e g computers even at OLD!!!

Soonretired wrote:

BB boxes, way to go. label them all "kitchen stuff" in black marker. no matter whats inside

Not recomended if the custom check things as they announced some before covid they will do.  It can be punnishment fees for wrong declaration. 

If doing it anyway, I recomend sending separate at other type or carry at flight menory items you can't buy new if the demanded fees for the shipment become so high so you chose to/can't pay it.  As it happened to a guy, who immigrated to Cebu (not SRRV). He couldn't pay so he lost alkl including his memory things by the custom demanded high fees. 

If question the fees,  making it take extra time in the custom, they add high STORAGE fees too...

But if you retire in Phils - after they allow SRRV again - you can solve it by the free from  custom fees ONE time for SRRV. 
LOCK UP so the cargo arrive within the time frame for free custom.   If they haven't change, I COULDN'T send custom free by ship just before I take the flight to Phils, because they wouln't arrive within the time frame!

i doubt they would fine you even if they looked in each BB box, which mine were never touched and wrapped exactly as i had them when they arrived here.
its not uncommon for people moving to toss things in boxes and label them bedroom,kitchen etc. that does not imply that each and every item is specifically for that room in your house.
i labeled them for my own use in marker not for anyone official, That official declaration info is in the paperwork of your BB box you fill out declaring the contents and has a matching sticker on each box,...not written on the box in markers..
I wrote "kitchen" on them to discourage any would be thieves or corrupt people along the way from picking out a "prize" box. such as one labeled "valuable laptops and electronics"
and have it either disappear or get set aside and held ransom for "extra fees"  to be pocketed by corrupt individuals.
nobody wants to steal kitchen crap.

there is no way i could even accurately list the exact contents really ,they were full of such varied misc.stuff i couldn't even remember myself by the time it was taped up!
And if i set my heavy toolbox inside a cardboard box it would easily fall out the bottom if you picked it up,so i scattered tools throughout the boxes of clothes and sheets and such, filling in any leftover space with trinkets and odds and ends.
i seriously doubt they would open each and every BB box and scatter that mess out to compare the contents with the description in the paperwork and repack all the contents in fresh boxes and use a roll of duck tape and packaging tape (at their expense)  to repack it all, it would take hours per box.
and even if they did they would find nothing illegal.
but to each his own.
do as you see fit.

Soonretired wrote:

i doubt they would fine you even if they looked in each BB box, which mine were never touched and wrapped exactly as i had them when they arrived here.
its not uncommon for people moving to toss things in boxes and label them bedroom,kitchen etc. that does not imply that each and every item is specifically for that room in your house.
i labeled them for my own use in marker not for anyone official, That official declaration info is in the paperwork of your BB box you fill out declaring the contents and has a matching sticker on each box,...not written on the box in markers..
I wrote "kitchen" on them to discourage any would be thieves or corrupt people along the way from picking out a "prize" box. such as one labeled "valuable laptops and electronics"
and have it either disappear or get set aside and held ransom for "extra fees"  to be pocketed by corrupt individuals.
nobody wants to steal kitchen crap.

there is no way i could even accurately list the exact contents really ,they were full of such varied misc.stuff i couldn't even remember myself by the time it was taped up!
And if i set my heavy toolbox inside a cardboard box it would easily fall out the bottom if you picked it up,so i scattered tools throughout the boxes of clothes and sheets and such, filling in any leftover space with trinkets and odds and ends.
i seriously doubt they would open each and every BB box and scatter that mess out to compare the contents with the description in the paperwork and repack all the contents in fresh boxes and use a roll of duck tape and packaging tape (at their expense)  to repack it all, it would take hours per box.
and even if they did they would find nothing illegal.
but to each his own.
do as you see fit.

besides, who's to say what i keep in my kitchen !!!
LOL

Did you send any after they annonced they will check balikbayan boxes more proper? 

"Household" is true for more things than "kitchen"   

Btw balikbayan boxes are not suppoused to be used to move things to foreigners.

everybody i checked with back then recommended forex to ship stuff here to my wife, it was certainly the cheapest by far. worked good for me. heard about them on site by 'Mindanao Bob' thats where i did all my research before moving here. he has a business sending flowers/gifts  to girlfriends here and a private eye service if you think shes cheating on you and several other businesses here.
i have to admit he is biased toward painting a rosy picture for retiring here since his businesses depend on it being the greatest thing ever to get a girl here and get married etc. but there is a lot of good info there too.
no i have not tried to send anything here with forex in 10 years, its funny every forex place i went to in the states was run by filipinos hahaa. they even offer to swing by and pick up your boxes for free.
i just cannot imagine how they would 'inspect' thousands of boxes like that,seems like a political promise more than a reality.