Christmas present tax

SIR – Yesterday, I paid £16.75 to pick up a Christmas parcel sent by my sister in Australia. This, apparently, was because the value of the parcel exceeded £15 ($75, my sister had declared), even though tax would have been paid on the items in Australia, and the value of each individual gift inside the parcel would have been much less than £15.

I have, of course, instructed my family to send no further presents.

To add insult to injury, the amount imposed by HMRC was £8.75, to which Royal Mail added its fee of £8. Scrooge and the Grinch would be proud. Valerie O’neill

Gateshead

SIR – Please stop sending glitter-shedding cards. Messages of peace and joy engender neither when vacuuming and picking away the clinging particles well into the new year. Anne Jappie

Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

SIR – I find Christmas cards an excellent excuse not to dust until after Twelfth Night. Ann Roberts

Chesterfield, Derbyshire