How much are italian visitors allowed to spend?

Question

my boyfriends family has an italian exchange student and he has been buying a lot of stuff and his mom brought up that there is a limit to how much he can spend in usa. does anyone know for a fact how much he can spend without a heavy tariff being imposed?

Answer 1

Theoretically he can spend as much as he wants, provided that he stays in the USA for more than 12 months. If he registered his residence in the US at the nearest Italian Consulate, he will be allowed to bring back his personal belongings in exemption of customs duties.

Otherwise, if he stays in the US for less than 12 months, or without registering his residence at the Consulate, and brings back goods worth more than 500 USD, then he could be asked to pay 19% VAT plus customs duties on all items he will be carrying.with himself.

He should also be aware of the fact that, unless he has proof of the purchase price of every item, the customs officers themselves will calculate VAT and customs duties on the retail price of the same items (or similar items) in Italy.

So if he stays in the US for less than 12 months and wants to carry or ship all that stuff home anyway, he'd better keep all the receipts...