US visitor with gifts over $100. How much hassle?

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?

usa customs-and-immigration

Best Answer

"Gifts" is a very generic term. Is it liquor/alcohol that might be dutiable, or is it clothes or an iPhone? You are not carrying these items to sell in the US, and you are probably not carrying 100 bottles or alcohol or 100 iPhones in original packages so probably answer NO. $100 is nothing noone's gonna worry about that. I've had my checked bags searched multiple times and had perfume bottles (for myself, not as gifts), a laptop, some brand new clothes and noone bothered. My cabin bag was also checked and I had a iPad, brand new headphones, a perfume bottle that was in a clear ziploc bag, and they didn't bother. In fairness I could've told them truthfully that these were all personal items but it never came to that.

In my exp, customs officials are interested more in fresh fruits and vegetables, meats, seeds, and agricultural stuff, than someone who has 2 personal laptops, 2 phones, 3 perfume bottles etc.