Tax and duty to pay buying from India into UK

I am considering buying some items on eBay from India. The total cost with free shipping is £300. What will I have to pay extra in total, tax and/or duties, who charges me, will my parcel be delayed, and is there any way of paying in advance to avoid delay of the parcel? Thank you so much.

Hi Mrs L It is very difficult to answer your question as you don’t specify what type of goods you want to import. There are many possible duty rates that could apply. You can check in the UK tariff schedule available on line. There will likely to be import VAT to pay at 20%. The charges will be notified to you by whover is shipping the goods into the UK . For example if the goods come by post it will be the post office . If by a fast parcel company such as FedEx, DHL , UPS etc they will notify you. In most cases you can pay by card on line via their website.

Hi MrsL,
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.
The parcel or courier company (for example, Royal Mail or Parcelforce) is responsible for taking goods through UK customs.
Please see below link for more information.
Tax and customs for goods sent from abroad
You can use this service to find a commodity code for goods you’re importing to or exporting from the UK and check if there’s duty or VAT to pay find out about suspensions or reductions.
Trade Tariff: look up commodity codes, duty and VAT rates
Thank you.