An Post charging duty on secondhand clothing sent from UK

An post are not charging you. It is the revenue charging based on the declared value of the goods you are getting from a non EU country.

Also it is not duty that revenue have charged you, it is vat.

So there are three people to vent at

1. Boris Johnson for Brexit

2. Your sister for putting too high a value on it

3 The post office she went to that did not give good advice. - Personal gifts up to €45 incl delivery are free of vat

Not getting at you but if you appreciate all that then what do you want sorted? There is nothing to sort at thus stage.

Doesn't matter.

Otherwise you could have your relative buy them brand new, take off the tags and pop them straight into the post over to you declaring them "second hand" despite having never worn them.

Only on declared combined value of under €45. The damage is done here as the sender declared a higher value.

Apart from Boris Johnson, I would go back as far the lunacy of David Cameron for calling the Brexit Referendum.

Within a country, VAT vat is charged at the sales point of goods or services.

When importing from a non-eu country, VAT (and duty where applicable) is charged at point of entry.

Same system operates in virtually all countries.

I would question the value that was put on the package. To ascertain a value of second hand goods is as simple as saying "how much would someone reasonably pay for these used item of clothing" rather than thinking "how much are these worth" and makign a guess based on what you originally paid. A reasonable answer would be no more than 20%-25% of the retail price. A customs label marked "Used clothing" and a value of £30 would probably have been seen as fine unless it was a huge box of clothing.

Stuff marked "gift" can and is opened to look for receipts/invoices etc. It is far from guaranteed to work.