Parcels: The government wants to tax small packages, often ordered on Chinese platforms
800 million parcels entered France last year, most of them ordered from Chinese platforms. Because they are small, they are not taxed, but the government is planning to introduce a handling fee, a tax payable by sellers.
Laurie Leroy orders around fifteen items a month at bargain prices from an Asian platform. This beautician spends less than 150 euros per order. These packages, exempt from customs duties, could soon be taxed in France. In France, 800 million packages costing less than 150 euros are delivered each year, and this number is constantly increasing. The government is therefore considering imposing management fees on each package on the platforms, starting in 2026. This would allow the State to further finance customs inspections.
Imported products would then become a little more expensive. Would this additional cost be passed on to customers? Contacted, the communications department of Shein, the Asian leader, refused to answer but specified: " the success of our company is based on our unique model of on-demand production and not on customs duty exemptions." The government hopes to convince its European partners to also apply these management fees. " There is a coordination challenge to avoid that (...) the same products arrive on the French market but bypass French customs by going, for example, through Belgium," explains Sébastien Jean, professor of economics at CNAM and associate director at IFRI. Customs controls will be tripled from 2025 while, according to the executive, 94% of the packages checked are currently non-compliant.
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