Shipping from France to the UK: customs, import VAT and who pays

People searching for "French customs clearance for UK shipments" are usually worried about one of three things: a parcel that seems stuck, a bill waiting on delivery, or a form they don't understand. This guide follows a parcel from a French warehouse to a UK door, and says at each stage who does what, and who pays.

Two customs, not one

A parcel leaving France for the UK crosses two customs administrations. On the French side it is an export: it leaves the EU customs territory and has to be declared as leaving. On the UK side it is an import: HMRC wants to know what it is, what it is worth and where it was made before releasing it.

For a private parcel you never deal with either of them directly. The carrier — the postal operator or an express company — files the export declaration in France and the import declaration in the UK, from the customs form attached to the parcel: a description of each item, its quantity, its value and its country of origin. That form is the whole game. When it is complete and true, the parcel goes through; when it is vague ("clothes", "gift", "various items") or the value looks wrong, it is the parcel that waits.

What the customs form has to say

Customs officers don't open most parcels: they read them. What they read is a precise description per item — not "accessories" but "leather belt" —, the number of units, the value actually paid, and the country where the goods were made, which is not always France, even for something bought in Paris.

The value is the price paid, as on the invoice. Writing a lower one doesn't save money: it gets the parcel flagged, assessed on an estimate, sometimes sent back, and it voids the insurance, which only ever pays out the declared value. And a purchase is never a gift: the gift allowance is meant for presents between private people, and a forwarded parcel declared as a gift is one of the first things customs looks for.

Import VAT: what you pay on arrival

UK VAT applies to goods entering the UK, just as it applies to goods sold in a British shop. How it is collected depends on the parcel. On low-value parcels that a foreign shop sells and ships directly to a UK customer, the shop is supposed to charge UK VAT at checkout — one of the reasons so many small French shops simply stopped offering the UK. Above that level, or whenever the shop didn't charge it, VAT is assessed at the border on the declared value and collected from you by the carrier before delivery.

With a forwarded parcel, the second case is the normal one: the French shop sold to a French address and never charged UK VAT, so it is due on import. Budget for it from the start. HMRC publishes the current thresholds and rates; they have moved since 2021 and the rules on low-value imports are being reformed, so check them before a large order rather than trusting a figure from an old forum thread.

Customs duty, and the origin rule nobody explains

Duty is a separate tax from VAT, and many parcels from France don't pay any. The UK–EU trade agreement lets goods made in the EU cross without duty, provided their origin is stated. A French-made jumper, an Italian handbag bought in Lyon, a German kitchen knife: in principle, no duty.

The trap is the word made. A pair of trainers bought in a French shop but manufactured in Asia is not of EU origin, and duty can apply depending on what it is. That is why the customs form asks for the country of origin item by item, and why we fill it in from the label and the invoice rather than writing "France" across the board. Low-value consignments also benefit from a duty relief today, which the UK government has announced it will remove by 2029 at the latest: one more reason to check the rules at the time you order.

The handling fee: the line people don't expect

When VAT or duty is due, the carrier pays it to HMRC on your behalf so the parcel can be released, then asks you to reimburse it — plus a fee of its own for doing so. You usually get a text or an email with a payment link before delivery, and the parcel waits until it is paid. That fee belongs to the carrier, not to HMRC and not to us, and it varies from one carrier to another.

The consequence is the same as for postage: one parcel means one clearance and one fee; five parcels mean five. Putting several purchases into a single box pays the fixed part of the crossing once.

Why a parcel gets held, and how to avoid it

Three reasons account for most held parcels. A description too vague to classify. A value that doesn't match the goods. And, most often of all, a payment notice nobody answered: the parcel is cleared but waits at the depot because the VAT link landed in a spam folder. Watch your tracking as soon as the parcel shows as arrived in the UK.

Some goods need more than a form. Food, plants, alcohol, perfume and anything with a lithium battery have rules of their own, applied by the carrier before customs even looks. The list of what can't be forwarded is here.

When the French shop won't ship to the UK at all

If you are reading this because a French shop or seller refuses to send anything across the Channel, customs is not the hard part — finding someone in France to receive the order is. With a French address, the shop delivers inside France as it always does. The parcel reaches our warehouse in Montbéliard, we open and check it, and it leaves for the UK with a complete customs form and its invoice. On our measurements, Chronopost quotes four days to London and Colissimo five. Our full UK guide is here.

Frequently asked questions