Christmas warning over French postal customs fees
Anyone sending or receiving cards and parcels from abroad during the festive period should take care
Some postal workers levy charges in error, leaving people with no option but to attempt to claim a refund
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Anyone sending or receiving cards and parcels from abroad this Christmas should take care over customs rules to reduce the chances of high fees on deliveries.
Readers regularly query such charges with us. One recently reported €24 in ‘customs charges’ on a £50 gift sent to France from the UK and €9 on a card.
“At the post office they said ‘the UK is no longer in the EU and we don’t set customs fees, we only collect them’,” he wrote.
Another reader from Tarn reports being charged an €8 fee for delivery of a Radio Times, which he had been receiving weekly without issues.
Unfortunately, some postal workers levy charges in error, leaving people with no option but to attempt to claim a refund from La Poste’s customer services.
These fees consist of several elements: there may be VAT (TVA, often 20%) and sometimes also customs duties (droits de douane, variable depending on category of goods).
Where payment was not organised upfront, La Poste and other carriers incur costs dealing with customs formalities and advancing payment: they ask that this be refunded before the item is delivered, and add a processing fee for this dédouanement, called by La Poste frais de gestion.
Gifts between members of the public, properly declared, are subject to exemptions: up to a €45 value for receiving items. Over this, items may incur VAT and sometimes duty. Gifts are tax/duty-free sent to the UK up to £39 and to the US up to $100.
Greetings cards and magazines should usually be treated in France as equivalent to correspondence, and be free of VAT/duty, but there can be issues with bulky novelty cards or magazines containing samples.
Regarding the sending of gifts, it is important that correct labels are used, showing the nature of the item, the fact it is a gift and its value.
La Poste advertises €8 frais de gestion, reduced to €2-5 if you pay online in advance of receipt. It should not be payable if there was no dédouanement, but if you are charged wrongly you will have to make a complaint.
Rules on receiving items in France on a commercial basis are different but most small parcels under €150 value do not attract duty. This is likely to change, with the EU and France looking to introduce a flat fee of a few euros on parcels sent from outside the EU.
Note that earlier this year, when the US suddenly axed a duty exemption on most small-value parcels, La Poste suspended the sending of parcels to the US.
At present however it is possible to send them and a $100/€80 allowance for gifts remains (see further rules and more information here).
