BajaNomad

Dollar limit on imports

bonanza bucko - 7-11-2012 at 08:08 AM

We need to import some stuff for the house south of San Felipe. Please tell me what the limit is for duty free imports. I think I heard that it's $300 per person......$600 for two?

Also, assuming we are under the limit...do we need to declare the stuff and then show a receipt or just go through "nada declarer" and show the receipt if asked?

Also...is the limit different if you have FM3s?

Thanks a bunch
BB

SFandH - 7-11-2012 at 08:20 AM

If it's not too much of a problem, ask these questions to a Mexican official at the border crossing you'll be using before you bring the stuff down.

IT DEPENDS

akshadow - 7-11-2012 at 09:15 AM

It all depends on the official who sees you.
I have had them exlude Zero, $300, all of one type of item plus an exemption. This was at Mexicali new.

Last time I brought some stuff down the worst part was having tow wait for almost two hours since there was a big line and things moved slowly/
Quote:
Originally posted by bonanza bucko
We need to import some stuff for the house south of San Felipe. Please tell me what the limit is for duty free imports. I think I heard that it's $300 per person......$600 for two?

Also, assuming we are under the limit...do we need to declare the stuff and then show a receipt or just go through "nada declarer" and show the receipt if asked?

Also...is the limit different if you have FM3s?

Thanks a bunch
BB

DavidE - 7-11-2012 at 09:24 AM

SFandH offers sage advice.

This is what can happen when you try and "run" a load of undeclared items through the nothing-to-declare lane. not only is the following Méxican law, aduaneros tell me the same thing and I know of a half dozen incidents where it has happened. One was chronicled in the LATITUDE 38 cruising magazine. This is the law:

You can be stopped. At gunpoint if it comes to that.

Undeclared cash more then a certain amount (I am not sure but it used to be one hundred thousand pesos or more), quantities of narcotics or SSA schedule I drugs, firearms, ammunition, loading equipment, chemicals used to make drugs like amphetamines, and the like are "gran delitos" and everyone in the car gets arrested. The car is impounded and goes to the corralon, forever.

With non criminal items, the people are detained long enough for the vehicle and trailer to be confiscated along with everything inside the vehicles. The undeclared items are "audited" either by receipts or guesswork. Being impolite to the aduanero causes them to err on the high side. The total is arrived at in pesos. Then it is multiplied by a factor of three. This is the amount of fine due. If it is not paid, everything, and I mean every last popcorn kernel under the floor mat goes to the corralon. Say good bye to everything. You'll never see it again. Even if you hire Mexican lawyers. Once you pay the fine, every last peso at Banjercito, the motor vehicle is returned to you. Not the undeclared contents. You lose the contents, even after paying the fine.

Hope this helps

Terry28 - 7-11-2012 at 09:45 AM

David, Your statement is pure BS..scare tactics don't help anybody!! Please quote your sources!! Not a story you 'heard" somewhere...

karenintx - 7-11-2012 at 09:54 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by bonanza bucko
We need to import some stuff for the house south of San Felipe. Please tell me what the limit is for duty free imports. I think I heard that it's $300 per person......$600 for two?

Also, assuming we are under the limit...do we need to declare the stuff and then show a receipt or just go through "nada declarer" and show the receipt if asked?

Also...is the limit different if you have FM3s?

Thanks a bunch
BB



If this is the form you have to fill out then maybe this can answer your question. Good Luck

http://www.aduanas.gob.mx/aduana_mexico/2007/RCGMCE/2007/dec...

Russ - 7-11-2012 at 10:01 AM

I go through TJ well before sunup. There is seldom anyone in front of me and the inspectors have been really accommodating if they send me to secondary. Just explain to them you're taking stuff for a new house you're buying. I think they will take a look and send you on your way. Answer the questions they ask and don't volunteer info. or bribe. If there is a duty to be paid smile tell them a reasonable worth and they'll write it up and you pay and continue to your home. These guys and gals have experience now and can tell house hold goods from something that needs import tax. It's really no big deal.

DavidE - 7-11-2012 at 10:02 AM

Let's put a little $$$$ on this. Send me a U2U

I do not post BS, or scare tactics. I did more than sit on my butt when I lived in Tecate for four years. It comes from visiting Aduana. It comes from talking to la señora jefa in Tecate, and reading it right out of the book. It comes from sitting in the transbordador dock in Sta Rosalia and talking to Ismael Bordeja for five hours. It comes from actually talking to aduaneros at the border and at the port in Lazaro Card##as.

What IS BS is to accuse someone of lying and then not having the wherewithal to put your money where your mouth is. Start walking or lose money

BornFisher - 7-11-2012 at 10:10 AM

It is $75 for you and anyone with you who is related. The tax is 16% of everything over that.

Terry28 - 7-11-2012 at 10:11 AM

David, chill man...I did not call you a liar, read it again,,,,Your starting to sound lile Skeet!!

schwlind - 7-11-2012 at 10:12 AM

Granted it was several years ago, but my husband and I went through San Ysidro crossing, with a friend hauling a huge truck load of stuff for us. Even though our friend got a green light, he was immediately directed to secondary. We were fortunate enough to get a very accommodating agent who asked us what we were bringing in and asked if the driver had an FM3. He told us if all three of us (our friend, and my husband and I) had been in the truck we could have claimed $300 each but since we (my husband and I ) were not in the truck, we could only claim our friends FM3. As it turned out, our duty was at first $58, but the agent reduced it to 36. As I said, he was a good guy and very helpful.

[Edited on 7-11-2012 by schwlind]

bigmike58 - 7-11-2012 at 10:19 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Russ
I go through TJ well before sunup. There is seldom anyone in front of me and the inspectors have been really accommodating if they send me to secondary. Just explain to them you're taking stuff for a new house you're buying. I think they will take a look and send you on your way. Answer the questions they ask and don't volunteer info. or bribe. If there is a duty to be paid smile tell them a reasonable worth and they'll write it up and you pay and continue to your home. These guys and gals have experience now and can tell house hold goods from something that needs import tax. It's really no big deal.


Very sound advice and exactly what has happened to us on the last 5 trips THIS year. We have not been asked to pay on any of the trips, but would if asked. Everything is in the open for them to see and inspect. We go thru the TJ everytime and early 5am-7am.
A pic of the last load...even had new tires for a neighbor in Mulege.

DavidE - 7-11-2012 at 10:39 AM

Be very cautious about throwing the words "Pure B.S." especially around me. I don't like to be conned, or baffled-with-BS either. I go way out of my way to avoid it.

That said your explanation is heartily accepted and you have my cyber handshake.

MOST of the time aduana is forgiving, and even polite to a fault. But there are some real hard cases. Unbribeable, damned near fanatics. It would take one; just one, crossing paths with someone who thinks running a bunch of stuff past declarations to ruin someone's life. Car gone, possessions gone, all of them. I remember a letters in Latitude 38 a few years ago when someone found this out the hard way. They were hauling a new propeller and engine overhaul kit for their 38 horsepower Perkins engine in the bed of their new pickup. Several thousands of dollars later Aduana returned their pickup truck but not the thousands of dollars worth of gear in the bed. The Aduaneros told them the fine could have been even higher. The boat owners had the receipts from Banjercito.

Because I speak Spanish, because I am curious, and because I know how to questions Mexicans without offending them plus have a lot of extra time on my hands I take the time to find out some of the mysteries of Mexican officialdom. I never rely on one source. I the case of Aduana, or Migracion, the SSP or PFP, I had to accumulate dozens and dozens of "lengthy chats". I remember sitting in the shade of a parota tree on Mex 200, talking with Joaquin Baez, commandante of the SSP office in Petlatlán Guerrero. For five hours. He handed me his huge book of Mexican codigos penales and I read through it, while he explained. Not everyone is as curious about things as I am. At this point I figure I have learned about 2% of what I wish to know. Sometimes things are not black and white, or gray, or red or green. They go to ultraviolet, infrared, gamma, and radio waves down here. This is why most Méxicanos simply shrug and take things at face value. Me? When I stop learning I die.