alasta:marmel: Correct. If you had an ipad in your bag without anything obvious like a box/receipt I think it would be extremely unlikely you would be asked to pay GST unless you volunteered the info that it was purchased overseas.
Given that your arrival card requires you to state whether you are carrying goods exceeding a certain value ($700?) purchased overseas, how could you not 'volunteer the info' without making a false declaration?
Look we all know what the rules are but seriously how many people do you think actually declare everything they purchased overseas??
There would be hundreds of kiwi's coming back into the country every day from overseas holidays where they would have spent well in excess of what the duty free allowance is and how many of them decalre it?
Personally I think you must be mad to tell customs you purchased goods that will attract GST unless like I pointed out you have the box or receipt in your bag.
Some on here are trying to make out you will be in big trouble if you don't declare the goods and then get caught but this simply isn't true. Yes you will have to pay the GST if this happens but you aren't going to get run through the ringer or pay all kinds of extra fee's, that's just rubbish.
Despite what others think NZ customs are not out to give anyone a hard time, if you get caught and you tell them you forgot to declare it I'm confident once you pay the GST that would be the end of it.