[Chadd]

We always bring something home and always had to go through the same routine.

$800 Exemption
If you are arriving from anywhere other than a U.S. insular possession (U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, or Guam) you may bring back $800 worth of items duty free, as long as you bring them with you. This is called accompanied baggage.
For Caribbean Basin or Andean countries, your exemption is also $800. These countries include:

• Antigua and Barbuda
• Aruba
• Bahamas
• Barbados
• Belize
• Bolivia
• British Virgin Islands
• Colombia
• Costa Rica
• Dominica
• Dominican Republic
• Ecuador
• El Salvador
• Grenada
• Guatemala
• Guyana
• Haiti
• Honduras
• Jamaica
• Montserrat
• Netherlands Antilles
• Nicaragua
• Panama
• Peru
• Saint Kitts and Nevis
• Saint Lucia
• Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
• Trinidad and Tobago

You may include two liters of alcoholic beverages with this $800 exemption, as long as one of the liters was produced in one of the countries listed above. Please see the Sending Purchases from Insular Possessions and Caribbean Basin Countries- Duty-Free Shops page for more information. ( Sending Purchases from Insular Possessions and Caribbean Basin Countries- Duty-Free Shops )
Depending on what items you’re bringing back from your trip, you could come home with more than $800 worth of gifts or purchases and still not be charged duty. For instance, say you received a $700 bracelet as a gift, and you bought a $40 hat and a $60 color print. Because these items total $800, you would not be charged duty, since you have not exceeded your duty-free exemption. If you had also bought a $500 painting on that trip, you could bring all $1,300 worth of merchandise home without having to pay duty, because fine art is duty-free.

http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/travel/va...exemptions.xml