My supplier has included free-of-charge samples in my shipment of goods. Do I have to declare such samples and pay the accompanying GST?

Question

Accepted Answer

Importers of trade samples are required to pay the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and/or duty. GST is calculated based on the Cost, Insurance and Freight (CIF) value of the goods, together with all duties payable.

If the value of the trade samples is zero or is not shown on the commercial invoice, the importer has to obtain the commercial value from the supplier.

The commercial value should be based on the transaction value of identical or similar goods from the same country of origin that is exported at about the same time.

The commercial invoice may indicate "value for Customs purposes only", which means that there is no sale of goods involved. Instead, the importer should provide the supporting trade documents to substantiate the commercial value of the imported trade samples. GST relief may be granted on certain trade samples. For more information, please refer here.

My supplier has included free-of-charge samples in my shipment of goods. Do I have to declare such samples and pay the accompanying GST?

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