I bought a gift voucher (gift certificate) for an overseas (Canadian) store. The voucher was fulfilled physically to the UK and I was charged customs (import) duty at the standard rate on the voucher's value.
The recipient then used the voucher to make a purchase from the store, again fulfilled to the UK from Canada, and customs duty was again applied on the declared value of the goods.
As a result, the recipient and I have effectively been charged import duty twice for the purchase of a single item.
Is this correct? Is there anything we could have done differently to avoid this double charge, other than me just giving the recipient cash instead of buying a gift voucher?
