You are the “importer of record” when buying from Amazon – counting towards your maximum of three consignments per year
The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has taken a stricter approach to clauses in the Customs and Excise Act relating to personal imports in 2018.
According to reports from TimesLive, SARS confirmed that citizens who bring in more than three import consignments per year will need to apply for an importer’s code.
The regulations have been in place since 2013, but are reportedly only now being enforced – with the reports of the crackdown starting in April 2018.
According to the SARS website, to register as an importer you must provide several personal and identifying documents, along with a certified copy of a close corporation registration or a company registration.
Really not good news as many items are not available in South Africa nor do our import services import $0.50 items from AliExpress? I had to import an extra strap and screen protectors for me and my wife's Fitbits from AliExpress. Total value is under $5 but it comes in three small consignments from AliExpress. There goes my quota for the whole year!! I always understood this to mean more a limitation on the same item eg. you are now dealing in those goods as you are bringing multiple numbers in obviously for resale.
So I wonder what happens now to my items that have been in the AliExpress delivery pipeline for the last two months as I also imported a pack of razor blades last month (not available in South Africa, even online) from Amazon?
 |
You are the “importer of record” when buying from Amazon SARS has taken a stricter approach to clauses in the Customs and Excise Act relating to personal imports. |