Why is La Poste asking me to pay before delivering my parcel?
In France the money question usually arrives before the parcel does. La Poste and Colissimo typically hold imports with unpaid charges and invite you to settle first — French VAT at 20%, any customs duty, and their own handling charge — releasing the delivery once the balance clears. That upfront collection is the defining feature of importing into France.
The payment notice, decoded
The typical notice covers up to three lines. First, customs duty: the flat €3 per distinct HS6 tariff line if your seller used IOSS, or the product's standard tariff rate if not. Second, TVA at 20% — but only when it was not already collected at checkout. Third, the carrier's own frais de dossier for fronting the clearance.
Only that last line is set by nobody but the carrier. Our data puts postal-side charges at €0–€8 and Chronopost-style express clearance at €5–€20. It is a service price, not a tax, which is why it varies by carrier rather than by product.
How the TVA line is calculated
When TVA is due at the border, the base is the goods plus shipping plus the duty — France applies 20% to the whole stack, so a parcel that owes duty owes more VAT too. When your marketplace checkout already showed French TVA (the IOSS route, standard on Temu, Shein and AliExpress), the border VAT line should be zero; if it is not, the seller's IOSS number probably never made it onto the declaration, which is worth raising with the seller.
Keeping a French delivery charge-free at the door
You cannot opt out of tax, but you can choose where you pay it. Prefer checkouts that display TVA in the order total, keep baskets to fewer product categories when you can — every additional HS6 line adds €3 on the IOSS route — and treat a suspiciously tax-free price from a small foreign webshop as a signal that the full tariff-plus-TVA-plus-fee stack will meet you at delivery.
Run your own order through the calculator
Frequently asked questions
- How much is French import VAT on a parcel?
- France's rate is 20%. For non-IOSS imports it is applied to the goods value plus shipping plus any customs duty charged. For IOSS marketplace orders the same rate was charged at checkout on goods plus shipping, and no VAT should be requested again on arrival. The duty component differs by route: flat per HS6 line with IOSS, the standard tariff without.
- Why does Colissimo want payment before delivery?
- Because French postal practice is to collect everything due — duty, TVA where applicable, and the handling charge — before releasing the parcel, typically by inviting you to pay online. Settling promptly matters: parcels with outstanding charges sit in storage and are eventually returned to the sender, leaving you to sort a refund out with the seller.
- What are frais de dossier and can I avoid them?
- They are the carrier's charge for clearing your parcel through customs and advancing the tax — a commercial fee, typically €0–€8 on the postal network and €5–€20 via express couriers. The dependable way to minimise them is to buy where VAT is collected at checkout: with nothing to advance, there is usually nothing to invoice at the border.
- Do I owe customs duty on a €25 Shein order to France?
- Shein normally sells through an IOSS-registered checkout, so your TVA was paid when you ordered and customs applies the flat €3 per distinct HS6 line. Fashion baskets often compress well: five knitted tops can share a single tariff line and owe the duty once, while adding shoes and jewellery to the same order adds new lines and new charges.