pn

Thank you, it's much appreciated. I'll check out that link.

My son was working in the French Alps for the winter. He is a teenage pianist and composer and was missing his piano so he asked us to send him a keyboard he has owned for several years. He organised the postage through Parcelforce in January of this year and paid around £40 in postage. He thought he had to pay tax when he collected it in France but none was requested when he went to the office. With the job finished at the end of the winter he was returning home on 21st April and posted his keyboard through the French post office. this time it cost him more - 92 euros but it's a different company, a bigger box with some of his clothes added in to provide protection so fair enough - bigger size, extra weight etc. The problem is that I have just had to pay £107.02 to have the keyboard released from Parcelforce - £95.02 of that is import VAT and a clearance fee of £12. I'm quite shocked - the keyboard is quite a few years old now and would only cost about £500 to buy new. Should he really be charged import VAT for something he already owned and just temporarily had with him (for less than 3 months!) in France? The fee I understand, the import VAT I don't.