Question about moving items into the country from Asia

[u/ThirstyJohn]

My wife (not an Irish citizen) is moving to Ireland from Taiwan to live with me (an Irish citizen) and bringing only personal things that she has owned for years and a few newer items that are 2 years old for which she has the receipts. She has a lot of her grandmother’s stuff which might be worth something, but it’s not in great condition and she has no idea what it is worth. How would she list these things on her form TOR 1078? Does she just assign a value to these items arbitrarily? And could you tell me how much import tax she might have to pay or how it is calculated? Thank you very much!

[u/Capable-Estate8851]

just assign values as best as u can honestly, i really dont think customs cares that much for normal household/personal belongings

if anything stands out to them theyll just ask questions or reassess the value themselves, its not like theyre gonna seize old family items over imperfect estimates

leave the customs side of it to the customs officers tbh. if they had to deeply inspect every single item and verify every valuation manually, imports into the country would barely function lol

[u/ThirstyJohn → u/Capable-Estate8851]

Thank you so much!!

[u/Free_Rest_7664]

She won't have to pay a dime. You will!

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[u/phyneas]

She can simply list estimated values for the items in question, e.g. what you would expect to pay for the item in question if you were buying one used in similar condition. She should try to determine fair market value of the items as best she can, as deliberately understating the value would be an offence, but if these are just basic used personal items, their actual market value is likely negligible. If you want to get an idea of the value of something, look for comparable items on adverts.ie or Donedeal or whatnot and use that as a guideline. As long as she puts down a reasonable estimated value for each item and doesn't do anything silly like claim that some obviously valuable antique or artwork or piece of jewelry or something is worthless, there shouldn't be any issue. Revenue have better things to do with their time than quibble over the precise fair market value of random used household goods that are going to be exempt from tax and duty anyway.

Since she is claiming TOR relief on the import, she won't have to pay any customs duty or other tax on her items provided they are covered by the relief. Personal property and household goods would generally be eligible for the relief, so unless she's bringing in tools of a trade or other commercial goods or her granny's booze collection or something, she shouldn't have to pay anything.

[u/Key-Satisfaction9860]

I learned never to pay for moving "junk" ...

[u/ThirstyJohn → u/Key-Satisfaction9860]

She’s not moving junk. The items have a lot of sentimental value to her.

[u/NobleKorhedron → u/ThirstyJohn]

Talk to Customs is my advice; just explain someone is moving home from abroad.