On 08/12/2011 03:55 PM, Thomas Dalton wrote:
On 12 August 2011 22:51, James Hare messedrocker@gmail.com wrote:
Hello,
Not a big deal, but I'd like to correctly report this on my customs form. What is the value of the bag, literature, etc. given out at Wikimania?
De minimis? Apart from, perhaps, the book about Israel, I doubt anything in there has every been sold. It looked like the kind of stuff that is always given away. There will be a cost to someone, of course, but does that matter for customs?
I filled out U.S. Customs and Border Protection Declaration Form 6059B http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/travel/vacation/sample_declaration_form.xml on my way back from Wikimania. To be punctilious ("For gifts, please indicate the retail value."), I made an estimate and declared the bag and conference books. I believe I said that I said the shoulder bag was worth $15 or $20, and that the books ("Facts About Israel" and the Haifa book) were worth $10 in total.
I could have been wrong by an order of magnitude and it would not have mattered, since I am a US resident and "U.S. residents are normally entitled to a duty-free exemption of $800 on items accompanying them" and this is per trip, not cumulative.