A number of recent visitors to Mexico, including especially Cancun, have had an unpleasant surprise recently when customs officials have enforced, apparently randomly, an obscure law banning visitor from bringing multiple computers into the country, with tablets counting as computers.
USA Today reported that travelers stopped with a laptop and a tablet were given a choice of losing one device, or paying a 19% tax on the value of the extra, based on an inflated estimate of its value. One traveler had to pay $200 to keep an older-generation iPad.
The rules, apparently designed to prevent travelers from bringing in extra devices to sell without paying duty, appear to be from an older era when people carried far less in the way of electronics, and includes some you'd hardly see anyone carrying today.
Here's the official allowed list: Two cameras or camcorders and camera gear; three cellphones or other wireless devices; one GPS; one electronic organizer; one laptop, notebook, omnibook or other portable computing device; one portable copier or printer; one CD burner and one portable overhead projector and its accessories.
Advice from readers on one travel-advice site: Bring your receipts so if you are in this situation you can at least reduce the cost.
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