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Comment by codetrotter | Hacker News Reader

> I also needed to pay ¥11,100 of import duties on it - it didn’t seem to matter that the MacBook was mine.

I traveled to Mexico a few weeks ago. In my luggage I had two MacBook Pro laptops and an old ThinkPad. To my dismay the people at the airport in Mexico demanded quite a bit of money, telling me that because I had brought more than one laptop I had to pay import taxes. I am a tourist from Europe traveling with three laptops. I begrudgingly paid up. It’s abusive and stupid to demand import taxes in situations both like that in the OP story and like they did from me.

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> I also needed to pay ¥11,100 of import duties on it - it didn’t seem to matter that the MacBook was mine.

I hate this too.

I've sent quite a few things from one country to another - from myself, to myself. I own the things, I bought them years ago in the country I'm sending them to, took them in luggage when leaving, but am now sending it snail mail back.

They demand I pay import duties, even when I have receipts showing I own it and bought it years ago in the country they want duties.

I've never been able to get out of it, and I've spent hundreds of hours trying.

Or if you buy something from abroad and have to pay import duties, if you return the item you’d think you’d get the duties cost back, but nope.

There are ways to do it, but it probably requires an expert in customs law to get the paperwork filed correctly.

When I moved from Australia to Sweden I shipped about half a shipping container worth of personal items -clothing, furniture, books, electronics - and I didn't have to pay any import duty apart from a small processing fee.

My guess would be that only applies when you’re first moving — at least that was my experience moving from the US to Canada.

If you haven't been to Mexico before, the cops there aren't above soliciting bribes.

I've had multiple laptops with me (for me an a girlfriend) and never gotten hit with this "import tax" issue.

But it's my experience that every cop in Mexico will try and hit you up for $50 -- and aren't above making up any reason to claim you owe money.

Tourists will likely pay whatever small fines or taxes on the spot. There's no alternative or recourse really... other than to just avoid Mexico.

It's a great country, with a lot of wonderful people, but it's run by a wholly corrupt government and police force.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_corruption_in_Mexico

They assume you are going to be working when you have multiple laptops like that. Sort of a faulty way for them to collect taxes from the nomad/expat crowd who are skirting income taxes.

The problem is, once the tourists leave the airport, who knows that the tourists will sell the laptop? Thus it is like importing a laptop.

I asked them if I show the laptops and the receipt for the import tax when I leave the country, will they refund the import tax.

Nope, that will not happen they told me.

If it was true that it was to avoid that I sell any of the laptops, it should also be possible to get the import taxes refunded upon leaving the country with the same laptops. But such is not the case :(

The obvious question here is, does Mexico in fact levy import taxes on incoming personal laptops, or were the airport people collecting a bribe?

Iirc, you're entitled to bring in a single laptop, above that, import taxes may apply. The issue is that "personal laptop" is not really something the customs has evidence of. They just see someone with multiple laptops, which could represent intent to sell.

In the interest of curiosity, everyone should read more about the situation - political, economic, etc. - of Mexico in order to understand the sincerity of a policy like import taxes on extra tourist laptops.

Links would be appreciated.

The US has a southern border crisis because nearly every country from Mexico to Chile is experiencing severe economic and social problems.

If you don't want to pay duties and plan on getting the equipment back from the trip you should get an ATA Carnet.

Thank you, that is great advice. I had not heard about it before but the Wikipedia article seems to indicate that this is exactly what I should have gotten. Will remember that for future trips.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATA_Carnet

Imagine if people from dubai complained about having to pay import taxes to bring a few extra ferraris into the states, we would call them insane, yet a macbook is likely many months comfortable living in most of mexico.

If they were then turning around and taking them back out after their stay, that seems like a perfectly reasonable complaint.

Exactly. One is for work, and one for personal use. And both of them are coming with me when I leave.

The value argument does not hold water to me. Why does the value of two laptops matter, but not the amount of money in my bank account? Why would I go the roundabout way of selling one of my laptops in Mexico, when I have money in my bank account that I can use directly.

The whole system is weird. And it ends up unfairly punishing travellers. When they should be focusing on the big scale stuff.

> Why would I go the roundabout way of selling one of my laptops in Mexico, when I have money in my bank account that I can use directly.

Because you might be taking advantage of price differences between markets? iPhones are cheaper in Hong Kong than in Mainland China, so people smuggle them to collect the margin gained by avoiding tarifs https://9to5mac.com/2017/07/18/iphone-smuggler-china-hong-ko...

Even if there was some price difference to take advantage of, the airline tickets I bought to go from Europe to Mexico are way more expensive than any sort of gain that would be worth the effort.

Also, I don’t think European countries in general have particularly good prices at all. If I were to sell one of my MacBooks here I imagine it would actually be at a loss even before you consider the cost of dragging them half way around the world in the first place.

You don’t tourist travel with your ferrari. You import them and pay taxes. Not the same thing.

> You don’t tourist travel with your ferrari.

Says you. When you have a 747 as your personal station wagon, you might bring a few toys along.

Private aircraft have to clear customs too.

Sure but if you take cars back with you when you leave… just like a laptop

You don't have to pay import taxes to bring ferraris in if it's just temporary for a vacation.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customs_Convention_on_the_Temp...

Normally, in any country of the world, you do not pay taxes on things, you import just temporary.

I doesn't matter if it is an Ferrari just for pleasure or if it is a new machine you bring in for a trade show for your business. The thing is, that you need to make a customs declaration (and not the easy one that you normally do at the airport as a traveller). You do the full declaration including information for which reason you are importing, when you will export it again, including all the tax codes. Then when you leave you need to declare the export.

Several times I've travelled with three to Chile, always one is a new purchase, the other two usually work + personal. And 2-3 smartphones and a camera, same flight. Never really had a problem. I guess if they all were BNIB they'd ask questions, but none of my friends have had issues with their gear or their shopping, yet it's usually a different story with places like Argentina or Mexico. They do ask in Chile about possible odd luxury items that stand out, like art or golf clubs, not so much about personal jewellery tho.

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