I'm about to visit my family in the US, and want to take some gifts. I see that there is a $100 gift exemption, no duty payable if my gifts are valued below $100.
I'm trying to decide between taking only some of the gifts, to the value of, say, $99 or taking all the items, which will probably sum to about $160.
I will honestly fill in the customs declaration in either case, stating the price I paid for the items. However I don't have receipts (mistake, I can see that now) for all the items, some of which were bought very cheap at the Toys R Us closing sale.
I've got no issue in paying any duty I'm liable for, but I want to avoid two kinds of hassle:
- Undue delay. I have connecting flights, what should be plenty of time, but I don't want to be caught up in some lengthy delay.
- Having to justify my valuations.
Anybody got experience of the process for paying duty? How much hassle have you seen? Would I do best to keep the value under $100?