Hello, I am traveling to Peru with a team that will be doing some minor renovations for a church. I will be bringing a chop saw and a Hamer drill; their combined price is $450US Do I need to declare them? Also, other members of my team will be bringing in some battery-powered tools that will not exceed 500 dollars. Will they need to declare these tools as well?
- This commment is unpublished.@NathanHello Nathan,Check out the Bienvenidos al Peru website (or App).There you find that visitors can temporarily (!) bring into the country "Other items" tax and duty free "for the traveler’s personal use or consumption and gifts which due to their quantity, nature or diversity are not presumed to be used for commercial purposes." If you bring in "electrical and electronic devices, tools and equipment which are used in the traveler’s activities, career or job" you can only bring "one unit per type" with a combined value of not more than US$ 500 tax and duty free.In my opinion this means that you can bring one saw and one drill (which are different "types" of tools) with a combined value of US$ 450 without having to declare them; but you could not bring two saws with a combined value of US$ 450 or two drills.Battery-powered tools (check the airline regulations as often the batteries are not allowed in the checked luggage) should be fine as long as each person only brings one tool per type with a max value of US$ 500.Even though you don't have to declare above mentioned tools according to the official regulations (save the website on your phone), your luggage can always be checked by customs. If this happens, the customs official might not bother and just let's you go. Or he/she might object all the tools you bring into the country and tries to tell you that you have to declare them as the value is above the US$ 500 (sometimes customs in Peru values stuff brought into the country quite creatively) and pay duty or a "garantia" (deposit). First of all remain friendly, explain for what you use the tools and, if necessary, show them the regulation (I linked the English version, but you can switch to Spanish on the top right corner in case suddenly the officer doesn't understand English anymore. Helpful in such cases as well to bring the invoices of the tools or have screenshot with a price to show the value.GreetingsEvaEdit: What I forgot to mentioned and just in case: as you don't perform professional work/services in Peru, the then necessary declaration of tools as described here does not apply and therefore you don't need to declare the tools and you don't need to pay a deposit. The tools are for your personal use during your stay as a tourist in the country.