After receiving a notice from my Swiss mover that my shipment will be arriving in Singapore next week, I was simply overjoyed. This meant that my shipment from Geneva to Singapore would have taken 4 weeks. Previously, my move from San Francisco to Geneva took me all of 4 months. For those of you looking to move out of Geneva/Switzerland, I highly recommend Balestrafic for their professionalism and punctuality (the coordinators also speak flawless English).

I quickly made arrangements for a local mover to pick up my items from the Singapore port. Two days before my items were ready for pickup at the port, my move coordinator dropped by the apartment and informed me that I had to declare the value of my goods, which could subsequently be subjected to Singapore’s Goods and Services Tax (GST). I was dumbfounded. Pay GST?? On my own worn-out sweaters, jeans and 1-year old LCD TV? Apparently there have been several cases of people sending product shipments into Singapore and declaring them as “personal effects”; after which they were somehow sold for a nice profit. I felt totally indignant. This policy was set up to catch the bad guys, how can I be subject to this same tax? I didn’t have such nefarious motives in shipping my stuff back from Geneva! Plus who would want to buy them anyway.

Having full faith that something like this could not have been missed by Singapore’s highly effective bureaucracy, I ran some Google searches on GST relief for relocations back to Singapore. Lo and behold, there is indeed such a mechanism for GST relief, and there’s even an online form for you to directly submit your application. The wonders of e-government! It took me all of 15 minutes to fill out the form, and I received my approval about 10 minutes after. After sending the approval to my local mover, they were subsequently able to clear customs and safely deliver the shipment to me. What a (GST) relief indeed!

In case you’re interested, here’s the link to the Singapore Customs website. And here’s the blurb on eligibility for the GST relief:

Under the Goods and Services Tax (Imports Relief) Order, a person transferring residence to Singapore may be granted GST relief on his used household articles and personal effects (excluding liquors, tobacco products and motor vehicles) subject to the following conditions:

• that such person (the claimant) satisfies Customs that:
  • he is changing his place of residence to Singapore;
  • he is the owner of the articles and effects imported;
  • the articles and effects have been in his possession and used for a period of not less than 3 months; and
  • the articles and effects are imported through air/sea. GST relief is not granted for consignment imported by road.
• the articles and effects are imported within 6 months of his first arrival in Singapore.
• such person gives an undertaking not to dispose of the articles and effects within 3 months from the date of importation of such articles and effects.
• multiple importations are not allowed.

For returning Singaporeans and Permanent Residents of Singapore, they must have resided in a foreign country for more than 6 months to qualify for GST relief on their used household articles and personal effects.