Technically you can take back 400 cigarettes each or 2 cartons. So for the both of you, 4 cartons. Although for the marlboro lites I brought back seemed to have a harsher taste than the ones I bought in the states so I don't think they are made quite the same. May want to take that into consideration. Also I said technically becaue no one ever seemed to check what I had or how many people were in my group... Jamie
For years I thought it was 400 cigarettes and would bring back two cartons with me to the U.S. Then someone corrected me and said it's only 200 cigarettes (one carton) and I looked at the U.S. Customs web site and 200 seems to be correct. I never had a problem with bringing two cartons though. http://www.cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov...ravel/knowbeforeyougo.ctt/knowbeforeyougo.pdf
The 200 cigarettes (one carton per person) is for duty-free purposes. You can bring more however they will be subject to not only federal tax but the port of entry's (whatever state you are making your customs declaration in) tax as well. Like Jamie... you probably won't be hit with duty unless you come across a harda** agent, provided the amount that you bring in is a reasonable amount (personal use). We used to bring quite a bit of alcohol back from Germany when we lived there and I can't ever recall getting taxed on it (Atlanta, Newark, New York, Philadelphia were some of the port on entries that we flew through). However we used to get taxed every time we walked across the border down in the Matamoros/Brownsville port of entry when we lived in San Antonio. Not saying that you won't get taxed, but I would believe that they are too concerned about getting people through the process (in order to make their connecting flight) to worry about a few bucks.
