19 CFR § 10.153 - Conditions for exemption.
Customs officers shall be further guided as follows in determining whether an article or parcel shall be exempted from duty and tax under § 10.151 or § 10.152:
(a) A “bona fide gift” for purposes of § 10.152 is an article formerly owned by a donor (may be a commercial firm) who gave it outright in its entirety to a donee without compensation or promise of compensation. It does not include articles acquired by purchase, barter, promissory exchange, or similar transaction, nor does it include articles said to be “given” in conjunction with a purchase, barter, promissory exchange, or similar transaction, such as a so-called bonus article.
(b) A parcel addressed to a person in the United States from an individual in a foreign country which contains a gift should be clearly marked on the outside to indicate that it contains a gift. Such marking is not conclusive evidence of a gift nor is the absence of such marking conclusive evidence that an article is not a gift. Ordinarily an article not exceeding $100 in fair retail value in the country of shipment sent from a person in a foreign country to a person in the United States ($200, in the case of an article sent from a person in the Virgin Islands, Guam, and American Samoa) will be recognizable as a gift from the nature of the article and obvious facts surrounding the shipment.
(c) A parcel addressed to a person in the United States from a business firm in a foreign country would ordinarily not contain a gift from a donor in the foreign country. When such a parcel in fact contains an article entitled to free entry under § 10.152, the parcel should be clearly marked to indicate that it contains such a gift and a statement to this effect should be enclosed in the parcel.
(d) Consolidated shipments addressed to one consignee shall be treated for purposes of §§ 10.151 and 10.152 as one importation. The foregoing shall not apply to shipments of bona fide gifts consolidated abroad for shipment to the United States when:
(1) The consolidation for shipment to the United States is in a cargo van or similar containerization which is consigned to a common carrier, freight forwarder, freight handler, or other public service agency for distribution of the gift packages;
(2) The separate gifts not exceeding $100 in fair retail value in the country of shipment ($200, in the case of articles sent from persons in the Virgin Islands, Guam, and American Samoa) included in the consolidated shipment are before shipment individually wrapped and addressed to the donee in the United States;
(3) Each gift package is marked on the outside to indicate that it contains a gift not exceeding $100 in fair retail value in the country of shipment ($200, in the case of packages sent from persons in the Virgin Islands, Guam, and American Samoa); and
(4) Each gift package is separately listed in the name of the addressee-donee on a packing list, manifest, bill of lading, or other shipping document.
(e) No alcoholic beverage, cigars (including cheroots and cigarillos) and cigarettes containing tobacco, cigarette tubes, cigarette papers, smoking tobacco (including water pipe tobacco, pipe tobacco, and roll-your-own tobacco), snuff, or chewing tobacco, shall be exempted from the payment of duty and tax under § 10.151 or § 10.152.
(f) The exemptions provided for in § 10.151 or § 10.152 are not to be allowed in respect of any shipment containing one or more gifts having an aggregate fair retail value in the country of shipment in excess of $100 ($200, in the case of articles sent from persons in the Virgin Islands, Guam, and American Samoa), except as indicated in paragraph (d) of this section. For example, an article ordinarily subject to an ad valorem rate of duty but sent as a gift, if the fair retail value exceeds the $100 (or $200) exemption, would be subject to a duty based upon its value under the provisions of section 402 or 402(a), Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (19 U.S.C. 1401a or 1402), even though the dutiable value is less than the $100 (or $200) exemption.
(g) The exemption referred to in § 10.151 is not to be allowed in the case of any merchandise of a class or kind provided for in any absolute or tariff-rate quota, whether the quota is open or closed. In the case of merchandise of a class or kind provided for in a tariff-rate quota, the merchandise is subject to the rate of duty in effect on the date of entry.
(h) The exemption provided for in § 10.151 is not to be allowed with respect to any tax imposed under the Internal Revenue Code collected by other agencies on imported goods.