USA relative posted us (UK) a vase he handmade, new hobby. Marked as gift but put $100 as insurance value. That's more than £18 so customs charged us 20% vat pl

USA relative posted us (UK) a vase he handmade, new hobby. Marked as gift but put $100 as insurance value. That's more than £18 so customs charged us 20% vat plus £12 processing charge. So became rather an expensive gift. If he had not marked it as gift we would have also paid vat on the 50$ shipping!!! (Why is USA postage so much). So items from abroad can suddenly become very expensive. In the plus side books are tax free in the UK which is nice.