Royal Mail accused of wrongly charging customers £150 ‘Brexit tax’ on items they already own

Brad Ashton of RSM UK, a tax firm, said people had been left “between a rock and a hard place” and forced to accept costly charges for taxes that may not in fact be due. 

Payment demand letters from Parcelforce, part of the Royal Mail group, said customers must pay their invoices within 20 days before the parcels are returned to the sender. The firm said parcels will not be delivered otherwise, even if the customer believes the charges are incorrect. 

The letters state Parcelforce was “unable to enter into disputes” into the charges “raised on behalf of HM Revenue & Customs” and that any complaints should be made direct to the tax authority. 

Customers are encouraged to pay the fees even if they plan to contest them. A statement on the Royal Mail website said it strongly advised customers to pay “to ensure the item doesn’t get returned to sender while your case is investigated”.

Parcelforce has refuted the allegations, blaming the people sending the parcels for making errors on their customs declaration forms. 

Since post-Brexit rules changed in January 2021 goods valued at more than £135 sent to Britain from the EU, including personal belongings, have been subject to import and customs duties. Gifts with a value of less than £39 are exempt, as are letters, postcards and documents. Before this, no duties applied. 

Royal Mail and other postal providers collect this money directly from recipients on behalf of the tax office before they are delivered. 

The duties are calculated based on the customs declaration forms filled out by the sender. 

Simon Sutcliffe of accountants Blick Rothenberg said the “sea change” of tax rules caused by Brexit had left ordinary people to deal with a vastly complex system, leading to errors on the declaration forms and a lack of knowledge about the reliefs they can claim. 

But he said Royal Mail and other providers were being overly “prescriptive” and not offering enough support to customers to deal with the changes. 

Mr Sutcliffe said: “They are in a rush to push these parcels through and not exercising enough discretion when something has probably been filled out wrong.” 

A spokesman for Parcelforce said the firm was “obliged to present all imported goods to HMRC for fiscal assessment” and that it was “not authorised” to assess tax charges itself. 

“The information that we submit to HMRC for assessment is based entirely on the customs declaration that the sender has filled in, and we are not responsible for any errors in the information that we have received,” the firm said. 

“Anyone who thinks that they have been charged taxes or duties from which they should have been exempt must first pay the charges, and then submit a ‘BOR286’ form to HMRC, requesting that the charges be reviewed. HMRC will then refund any charges that it agrees are incorrect.”