To answer your question, yes you can. If travelling together (2 or more) and the total amount of the purchase doesn’t exceed the total personal amount, you are good to go.
I don't believe this is actually the case.
When we bought our camper in 2023 we were in the US for a long enough period to each be eligible for the $800 allowance. When we arrived at the border and declared the trailer as one of our purchases, we were of course sent to secondary to start the paperwork process for importing a vehicle. They applied
my $800 allowance against the taxable value, but I specifically asked if I could use my wife's $800 allowance as well and was specifically told that no, that wasn't allowed since the bill of sale was in my name and my wife had nothing to do with the purchase in the eyes of the law.
Now don't get me wrong, if you're just talking cash register receipts and you have $1600 total, you hand $800 worth to your spouse (or someine else in the car, or whatever), well, obviously there's going to be no problem as they can't prove who bought what. I suppose if they
really wanted to be difficult they could attach debit card or credit card numbers to each person, but the chances of that happening seems basically unheard of.
But if you're buying something that has your name attached to it, you can't share the allowances apparently.
