Customs rules for importing personal effects

[brucebrad]

I'm currently overseas and need to send some stuff back to Australia. It will arrive home before me. It will be a mixture of:
- things I exported from Australia (clothes, an old laptop)
- clothes I bought overseas
- books, sporting equipment bought overseas
I've been away less than 12 months.

I can see two sets of rules on the customs website. The first says that if I import goods worth less than $1000 they are exempt from duty. The second says that if I am sending personal effects home, then personal effects like clothes will be exempt, but things like books and sporting equipment will be subject to duty (if away less than 12 months). However, I can't see any document that refers to both these rules simultaneously. That is, if I send a parcel with all the above, will it be exempt from duty if the value of the books and sporting equipment is less than $1000? Should I split the parcels some way? Will it make a difference it goes via post or courier?

 

[bass_ke]

It's been ages since I've had anything to do with cargo game but consider if they can be sent as Unaccompanied personal effects, a freight forwarder may be able to help you out

 

[markis10]

Any package that is worth less than $1000 won't get assessed, so spit the packages, and don't tell Gerry Harvey!

 

[brucebrad]

Yes I know that. However, my question is whether the other rule about personal effects simultaneously applies (which exempts clothing). Eg if I declare $600 worth of clothing and $500 worth of sporting goods (say) will I be exempt? (Actually, what I'm mainly trying to avoid is having to work out how much my old clothing is worth!).

 

[medhead]

The personal effects are exempt from duty therefore they do not count towards the $1000 limit. That limit only applies to items that are not exempt.

Edit: you don't have to declare the clothes at all. Any amount if clothing can be included. But the simplest option would be to send the clothing separately and the rest in sub$1000 packages.

 

[NM]

Also note that depreciation can be applied to anything that is "used" when you import it. So if you have been using the sporting equipment, then you can apply reasonable depreciation to the value declared.