Paid VAT twice

I ordered goods from Australia, worth £116.17 approx. They collected VAT resulting in a total of £139.40. I then get the notice from Royal Mail that Customs and VAT has to be paid. Is this correct? The total only went over £135 because they collected VAT but the actual value of the goods is below this. The value of the goods written on the parcel is £139.40. And it cost £60 to get it from Royal Mail. Will HMRC refund me? The VAT?

Hi,
You need to check with the seller to see if the VAT collected at the time of sale was sales VAT by Australian authorities?
If so then you need to raise it with them. Anything posted or couriered to you from another country goes through customs to check it is not banned or restricted and you pay the right tax and ‘duty’ on it.
More information is on below link:
Tax and customs for goods sent from abroad
Thank you.

Australia doesn’t have VAT but does have GST so it is possible that local taxes have been applied which would add to the goods value. If the VAT was definitely UK VAT as should be the case then it is possible to make a reclaim . The issue has likely arisen because of the way the sender has declared the goods. If they have just shown a tax inclusive value then that may have been taken as the value of the goods so duty and VAT would be applied at import. The claim for postal imports is a BOR 286.