Customs allowances when you carry something for someone else

1. Two different rules

When goods cross a border there are two separate questions: is duty owed, and is tax owed. Which relief you get depends entirely on how the goods arrived.

• A traveller allowance (also called a personal exemption) applies to goods you carry with you, in your own luggage, for personal use. It is a per-person figure and you get it by walking through the border yourself.
• A de minimis threshold applies to consignments — parcels sent by post or courier. It is a per-shipment figure and has nothing to do with you being present.

Until recently these were roughly comparable in the US, so nobody had to care. That changed. Duty-free de minimis treatment for commercial shipments was suspended indefinitely — for goods from China and Hong Kong from May 2025, and for all other countries from 29 August 2025. Congress has since legislated to repeal the provision for commercial shipments outright from 1 July 2027.

The traveller allowance was not touched. So a $400 item posted to the United States now attracts duty, while the same item carried in a returning resident's suitcase still falls inside their $800 personal exemption. That is not a loophole — it is two different reliefs that were always separate and have simply stopped resembling each other.

2. The figures, with sources

Three of the largest destinations, as published at the date on this page. Every figure links to the authority that sets it — check the source rather than trusting this table, because these change.

Figures checked on 19 August 2026. Every other destination sets its own, and many are far lower than these three. Search for your arrival country's customs authority directly — not a blog, and not this page.

3. Personal or commercial

Every allowance above rests on the same idea: the goods are for personal use. Officers are not reading your mind, they are reading a handful of signals.

• Quantity. One phone is personal. Five identical sealed phones is a consignment, and gets assessed as one regardless of total value.
• Packaging. Retail-sealed, still shrink-wrapped, several of the same SKU — all of it reads as stock rather than shopping.
• Consistency. The same route, every few weeks, with goods each time is a pattern, and patterns get noticed.
• Your answer. If you say you are carrying it for someone who is paying you, you have described a commercial import. Officers do ask.

This is the honest limit on carrying things for other people. Doing it occasionally, in ordinary quantities, is a traveller with a full bag. Doing it every week at volume is importing, and the rules for importing are different and stricter. If you find yourself building a business on it, get proper advice rather than stretching a personal allowance to cover it.

4. Four things that catch people

• The allowance is per person, not per item. Your own shopping and the thing you agreed to carry come out of the same figure. If you spent your allowance on yourself, there is none left for the favour.
• Going over can cost you on the whole amount. The UK charges duty on the total value of the goods in a category once you exceed it, not on the excess alone. A £400 item is not £10 over — it is £400 assessed. Other countries handle this differently, which is exactly why you check.
• “It is a gift” is not a magic word. Gift relief exists in some places for posted parcels, usually at low value and between private individuals. It does not convert a paid errand into an exempt one.
• Allowances cannot be pooled with strangers. Families travelling together can often combine allowances; you and the person meeting you at arrivals cannot.

5. Restricted whatever the value

Some categories sit outside the value allowance entirely and have their own limits, or their own paperwork.

• Alcohol and tobacco. Fixed quantity limits almost everywhere, separate from the money figure, and often with a minimum age.
• Medication. Prescription drugs may need documentation, and a medicine sold freely in one country can be a controlled substance in another. This one genuinely catches people out.
• Cash. Declaration thresholds apply — commonly around €10,000 entering or leaving the EU, and $10,000 for the United States. Declaring is free; failing to declare is not.
• Food, plants, seeds, soil. Frequently banned outright between particular country pairs, whatever they cost.
• Anything on the prohibited list. No allowance applies to something that may not cross at all. GetFlyPass keeps its own list of items and destinations, and it is shorter to read than to regret.

6. At the border

The practical part is short. Keep the receipt for anything you are carrying — it establishes what the item is and what it is worth, and an officer valuing it without one will not value it in your favour. Keep the item accessible rather than buried. Know, in one sentence, what it is.

If you are over the allowance, or you are not sure, declare it. Declaring means paying duty you might otherwise have avoided. Not declaring, and being found, means the duty plus a penalty, and in the UK your goods can be seized outright. The expected cost of honesty is lower, and it is not close.

And the rule that outranks all of this: never carry a sealed package whose contents you have not seen yourself. Allowances are about money. That one is about your liberty, and it is covered properly in the guide for travellers.

7. Agreeing who pays

Duty is the most common argument between a buyer and a traveller, and it is entirely avoidable. Settle three things in writing before anyone spends money: what the item costs, what the reward is, and who covers duty if any is charged.

A workable default is that the buyer covers duty, since the item is theirs and they chose it — but what matters is that it was agreed, not which way it went. On GetFlyPass that conversation happens in chat and stays there as a record, which is the point of having it in writing.

If an item would clearly exceed the destination allowance, the right answer is usually to decline or split it across trips. A delivery that costs more in duty than the reward is worth has not gone well for anybody.

Related: what your spare luggage space is worth if you are the one flying, and what to do when a shop will not ship to your country if you are the one buying.

This page is general information, not legal, tax or customs advice, and GetFlyPass is not a customs broker. Allowances and restrictions change without notice and vary by country, by traveller and by category. The linked authorities are the only sources that bind; check them for your own route before you fly.