Tax charged by Correos

Unfortunately Correos do not know the history of any item so will have no choice but to charge you VAT.

Declaring items as gifts no longer exempts items from VAT or other import charges, that concession was done away with quite recently.

There may be a mechanism for recovering the VAT you paid I don't know but I would imagine if there is it would cost you 10x as much in grief and aggrevation, you'd certainly need to produce the original invoice showing the VAT paid when you bought them.

My advice would be to put it down to experience and move on.... and remember your glasses next time!

Personally I have not bought a single thing from UK since Jan 1st. and don't expect to any time in the future.

Welcome to the another of the predictable but never mentioned consequences Brexit!

The amount paid does not only refer to tax(es) but also includes a handling fee. All used personal items declared as such are exempted. See here https://www.correos.es/es/es/particulares/recibir/tramitacion-aduanera-en-la-importacion/importacion-en-peninsula-y-baleares/dua-simplificado.

Looks like the sub post office made a mess of this. My son told them it was his dad´s glasses which he hadn´t packed in his luggage by mistake and that he was sending them on to him. They then insisted in ticking the "gift" box which was totally wrong but he didn´t know. He asked them and they got it wrong. I am now going to take this up with Royal Mail in the UK. They have caused this in the first place. I will let you all know how I get on.

I'm afraid Royal Mail has nothing to do with this problem.  You should take it up with The Post Office ltd.

I´m afraid they do. these people operate under licence from Royal Mail but have to undergo proper training courses before they can get a franchise

I worked for Royal Mail for 26 years by the way