A traveller is not a shipment. The returning resident’s exemption is a different provision, 19 CFR 148.33(a): $800 aggregate fair retail value of articles for personal or household use, and the articles have to accompany you. Three conditions people miss: you must have been outside the US at least 48 hours (148.35), you can only use it once per 30 days (148.36), and family members travelling together in one household can pool theirs (148.34). HTS 9804.00.65, general rate Free.
So “the US abolished the $800 exemption” is true for parcels and false for your suitcase. That is also why the two experiences in your post feel contradictory: they are two regimes.
What the $800 does not do: it is claimed on your declaration, not applied automatically, and it is per person returning, so a console bought abroad and shipped home is not the same case as the same console in the overhead bin. State use tax is separate and CBP does not collect it.
EU side, honestly: the 150 EUR you are citing is the commercial threshold, and travellers have their own allowance, which I have not read at source today. Not going to type a number I did not check.
Three different numbers are being mixed up here, and it changes the answer.
The exemption that got suspended is the commercial one: 19 U.S.C. 1321(a)(2)©. EO 14324 section 2, as continued by EO 14388 (Feb 20 2026), kills it for “any shipment of articles … regardless of value, country of origin, mode of transportation, or method of entry.” Shipments. That is parcels and courier packages.
A traveller is not a shipment. The returning resident’s exemption is a different provision, 19 CFR 148.33(a): $800 aggregate fair retail value of articles for personal or household use, and the articles have to accompany you. Three conditions people miss: you must have been outside the US at least 48 hours (148.35), you can only use it once per 30 days (148.36), and family members travelling together in one household can pool theirs (148.34). HTS 9804.00.65, general rate Free.
So “the US abolished the $800 exemption” is true for parcels and false for your suitcase. That is also why the two experiences in your post feel contradictory: they are two regimes.
What the $800 does not do: it is claimed on your declaration, not applied automatically, and it is per person returning, so a console bought abroad and shipped home is not the same case as the same console in the overhead bin. State use tax is separate and CBP does not collect it.
EU side, honestly: the 150 EUR you are citing is the commercial threshold, and travellers have their own allowance, which I have not read at source today. Not going to type a number I did not check.