Your household contents to Australia: tax-free if you owned everything for twelve months, and the car isn't included

Shipping your household contents to Australia is possible without customs duty, GST or other charges, provided you and your goods meet the conditions of the Australian Border Force: the goods are yours, intended for your use in Australia, and you have personally owned and used them for at least twelve months before your departure. The trap isn't in the customs but in what doesn't fall under it, and in the biosecurity inspection every shipment has to pass. What the shipping itself costs depends on your volume and your mover; the calculator at /australie works with that.

What counts as household contents, and when is it tax-free?

Unaccompanied personal effects are the household and personal items you bring to Australia but that arrive separately from you, by air, sea cargo or post: clothing and footwear, personal hygiene items, furniture, appliances, sporting equipment, and even certain non-motorised caravans and boats. They must be in reasonable quantities and not for sale or trade.

The concession from customs duty and GST rests on a customs by-law under the Customs Tariff Act, and the ABF summarises the requirements like this:

Condition	What the ABF asks
You	18 or over, arrived as a passenger from outside Australia; for some goods as a citizen, permanent visa holder or holder of a special category visa
Your goods	your personal property, suitable and intended for your use in Australia, and personally owned and used for the prescribed period immediately before your departure
Clothing, footwear, grooming	no minimum period of ownership
Furniture, household goods, personal effects, fur	12 months
Machinery, plant and equipment	12 months
Small boats, non-motorised caravans and trailers	12 months
Aircraft with one motor	6 months

"Used" means according to the ABF: available for use for their intended purpose, on a continuing basis, for the whole prescribed period. A sofa you bought two months before departure therefore falls outside it and is simply taxed. The ABF may ask for evidence of the period of ownership: receipts, photographs or a statutory declaration. What may not go in: commercial goods, bequeathed goods, alcohol and tobacco (always assessed), motor vehicles and their parts, and anything you have sent to you after your arrival.

The timing: send before your arrival

The goods may arrive before or after you, but there has to be a connection between the sending and your travel to Australia. You must have arranged the transport before you arrive yourself, and be able to prove that connection, for instance with your airline ticket or your employment contract. Once everything belonging to your move has arrived, the concession is used up: whoever has another load sent afterwards pays duty and GST on it.

Send nothing afterwards. The ABF says it literally: the concession isn't there to keep sending goods after arrival. What you forgot comes in at the full rate. So decide before packing what goes, and have the rest sold or given away in the Netherlands.

Form B534 and the three ways to clear

Genuine household goods needn't be reported with an import declaration; you clear them with the Unaccompanied Personal Effects Statement, form B534. That is a legal declaration to both the ABF and the Department of Agriculture, in English (the form exists in other languages, but you complete it in English), with questions about who packed the boxes, whether you know the contents, and per category whether restricted goods are inside. The form covers you, your spouse and your children under 18.

Clearing can be done in three ways: in person at an ABF counter, with a 100-point identity check (passport, a document with a photograph, proof of your home address); by email to the ABF address of your state; or through a customs broker via the Integrated Cargo System. In all cases you supply the signed B534, the bill of lading or delivery order in your name and address, a packing list of all goods, receipts for what you owned for less than the prescribed period, and permits for prohibited goods. A friend or relative may do it for you, with a copy of their passport page with signature.

The biosecurity inspection

Every shipment of household goods is assessed by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, on the basis of the B534 and the packing list. The department is particularly interested in items made from animals or plants (wooden furniture, an animal-skin drum, dried flowers) and in anything that has been in contact with animals, plants, water, food or soil: bike tyres, golf clubs, pet blankets. What turns out to be a risk is cleaned or treated, at your expense. So list precisely what is in each box; a vague list means a longer inspection.

And the car?

Motor vehicles are expressly excluded from the household goods concession. A car requires its own import approval before shipping and is only released once duty, GST and, where applicable, luxury car tax have been paid; that article stands on its own. Whoever puts the car in the container anyway has a problem in the port, not a solution.

What may come along is more than most people think. So choose by the table above and by the sum the cost indication makes: a container full of twelve-month-old belongings is tax-free, and the bill is in the freight, the insurance and the inspection.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 5 of 5 of the journey, step 5.2: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Australia or go straight to step 5.2 in the open plan.