Moving your home from Britain to France is not the same legal operation as bringing a suitcase across the Channel or buying furniture for a French second home. Since Brexit, the United Kingdom is a country outside the European Union for French customs purposes. A British family can nevertheless obtain a franchise, meaning relief from import duty and import tax, when its household goods genuinely accompany a transfer of its normal residence and the evidence is complete. The exemption is not a reward for nationality and it is not applied simply because a removal company describes the load as “personal effects”.
The critical questions are practical: where was your normal residence, how long had you lived there, how long had you owned and used each item, when will the goods enter France, and what did you declare? French customs may also separate qualifying furniture from a vehicle, alcohol, tobacco, professional equipment, stock or a restricted item. A container can therefore contain both exempt and taxable goods.
This guide focuses on the person moving to France after Brexit, not on buying a property or creating a company. It sets out the conditions, the inventory and the déclaration (customs declaration) to prepare, then explains what to do if the removal is stopped or an assessment is issued. The legal position is checked as at 28 August 2026; transitional dates matter because French VAT legislation is being recodified.
I. Can I move my household goods from the UK to France without paying import VAT?
A. Which goods and residence conditions qualify after Brexit?
The starting point is the border between personal property and an import for ordinary taxation. Article 291 of the French General Tax Code states: “Les importations de biens sont soumises à la taxe sur la valeur ajoutée.” The taxe sur la valeur ajoutée, or TVA, is French value added tax. The same article creates an exception for goods definitively imported under the fiscal franchises designated by the implementing rules. In other words, import VAT is the rule; the household-move relief is an exception that has to be claimed and proved.
For an import made before 1 January 2027, the main French text to read with Article 291 is Article 50 septies of Annex IV to the General Tax Code. It defines personal goods by reference to “Les biens affectés à l’usage personnel des intéressés”. The rest of the definition excludes goods whose nature or quantity suggests a commercial purpose or use in an economic activity. That distinction catches more than obvious stock. Ten identical new appliances, unopened retail packaging, trade samples, tools belonging to an active business or a quantity of goods inconsistent with a family home can prompt questions even if the owner says that everything is personally owned.
The same provision defines résidence normale, the French expression for normal residence, as “Le lieu où une personne demeure habituellement”. It uses a 185-day reference and also considers personal and professional ties. A British citizen who has kept a UK home, worked in the UK and spent holidays in France cannot automatically treat a French holiday property as the transferred normal residence. Customs will look at the actual move and the supporting documents, not just the address printed on a removal quotation.
The current French customs guidance applies a clear third-country test. A person coming from a country outside the European Union may obtain relief when they have stayed in that country for at least 12 months and transfer their principal residence to France. The goods must have been used privately for at least six months before the residence transfer. The guidance also says that the goods must have borne the applicable customs and fiscal charges in the country of origin or provenance. This last point matters for goods bought duty-free, goods acquired under a special export arrangement and goods recently received as gifts.
The official French customs page on relief for transferring a principal residence is the operational reference. It distinguishes a move from an EU Member State, where there is no equivalent import customs formality, from a move from a non-EU country. A removal from England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland into France must be treated as the latter unless a different legal fact applies. A British passport alone does not answer the customs question; the relevant facts are residence, use, ownership and the destination of the goods.
A qualifying move normally includes used household furniture, clothing, books, kitchen equipment, ordinary personal effects and other items serving the household. The goods can have been bought with tax included or outside the tax system, but you still need a coherent explanation of their acquisition and use. “Used” is not a synonym for “old”: a recently bought sofa may be taxable if the six-month use condition is not met, while an older item may qualify if it has genuinely formed part of the household.
The exemption is not a blanket approval for every object loaded into the lorry. The customs guidance excludes alcoholic products and tobacco, means of transport for utility use, mixed-use vehicles, transportable homes, most professional equipment, and stocks of raw, finished or semi-finished products. A portable professional instrument can be treated differently from a commercial stock of equipment, but a self-employed person should not decide the classification alone. Keep business assets on a separate list and ask the customs representative how they will be declared.
Cars, motorcycles, trailers, caravans, boats and aircraft deserve a separate file. French diplomatic guidance states that vehicles and several other means of transport must have been acquired with tax included in the country of origin or provenance to benefit from the relief. Registration, proof of ownership and conformity requirements are separate from the household-goods exemption. Do not hide a vehicle inside a general furniture inventory. A vehicle can also trigger a registration process, environmental charge or technical requirement even when a customs exemption is available.
Restricted goods are another boundary. Animals, firearms and ammunition, cultural goods, endangered species, medicines and plants can require specific documents or declarations. The French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs lists these categories in its updated guidance on moving to France. An antique desk can be a household item for the relief calculation and still require a cultural-property or export document. A pet can travel with the family and still require animal-health paperwork. Relief from import VAT does not remove public-health, cultural-property or safety controls.
A French second home produces a particularly common mistake. Goods sent to furnish a house that is not the person’s transferred principal residence are not treated as a qualifying transfer of normal residence. The customs guidance says that goods for a secondary residence are no longer admitted duty- and VAT-free, and that the total declared value can form the basis of taxation. A British owner who remains resident in the UK but sends furniture to a holiday house in Brittany, Normandy or the Dordogne should not present that shipment as a permanent move merely because the property is available for occasional stays.
Nor is the relief designed for a house-flipping project, an online shop or an interior-design business. If the goods are intended for resale, short-term rental activity or a professional operation, the personal-move route may fail. A furnished letting can raise a particularly difficult mixed-use issue: a bed, table or sofa may be a personal possession in one file and business equipment in another. Separate personal goods from business goods, identify the intended use in the inventory and obtain a written customs position where the distinction is material.
The date of the residence transfer also needs care. “I signed a lease” may be a useful document, but it does not necessarily establish the date on which normal residence moved. Consider the departure from the UK, the occupation of the French home, the end of the UK household, employment or retirement evidence and the date shown on any residence document. The move of the goods can happen later, but the 12-month post-transfer window must be calculated from the legally relevant transfer date, not from the day the removal company has an available vehicle.
The French VAT provisions are changing in form. Future Article L213-10 of the Code of Impositions on Goods and Services describes a personal good as a good reserved for personal or family use, transported occasionally and not suggesting resale or economic use. Its wording begins: “Le bien personnel transporté à destination ou en provenance du territoire de taxation”. The future section containing Article L213-35 begins the residence-transfer exemption with: “Est exonérée l’importation de biens personnels d’un particulier”. These future pages must be read with the transition rules, not copied as if they were the law applicable on every date.
In particular, Article 17 of the 27 July 2026 ordinance adjusting the Code of Impositions on Goods and Services amended the earlier transition provision so that the relevant recodification date is 1 January 2027 rather than 1 September 2026. The safe approach for a shipment near the changeover is to record the date of import, preserve the version of the official guidance used, and ask the declarant to identify the legal version in the customs entry. Do not rely on a blog post that gives one permanent date.
B. Which documents, inventory and timing prove the exemption?
Proof is not an administrative afterthought. Article 50 octies B of Annex IV to the General Tax Code provides: “la preuve que ces limites ou conditions ont été respectées doit être apportée par l’intéressé”. The person claiming relief therefore needs a file that permits the customs officer to connect three things: a genuine transfer of normal residence, goods that are personal and sufficiently used, and an entry into France within the relevant period.
Start with the inventory. French customs asks for a detailed, estimated, dated and signed inventory, generally in two copies. “Furniture” or “personal effects” is too vague for a valuable container. A usable line identifies the item, quantity, approximate age, condition and realistic second-hand value. For example: “oak dining table, one, purchased 2018, used in UK family home, fair condition, estimated value £450”; “books, 12 cartons, mixed personal library, used, estimated total value £300”. Add serial numbers to electronics and photographs to valuable or unusual items.
Use one currency consistently in the inventory and state the exchange-rate method if values are converted into euros. The valeur en douane, or customs value, is not necessarily the price paid years ago. It is a customs valuation used to calculate any charge where relief is refused. A reasonable second-hand estimate is preferable to a symbolic value that cannot be defended. Keep purchase invoices where available, but do not invent invoices for inherited, gifted or long-owned items. A short signed explanation and photographs may be more credible than a false precision.
Separate lines or annexes should identify:
- ordinary personal and household goods;
- vehicles, trailers and other means of transport;
- professional tools or equipment;
- items bought recently or received as gifts;
- alcohol, tobacco and food, which require their own treatment;
- antiques, works of art, plants, medicines, animals and firearms; and
- items that will remain in the UK, go to a second home or be used in an activity.
The legal status of the item should be clear before loading, not negotiated after the lorry is held. A removal company or transitaire, meaning a freight forwarder handling customs transport, can help prepare the file, but it cannot change the facts. Ask who will be the déclarant, the person legally making the customs declaration, and whether the company acts as a direct or indirect représentant en douane, a customs representative. Read the mandate and the allocation of liability for inaccurate descriptions, values, storage and taxes.
For the residence evidence, assemble documents covering the UK period and the French destination. Useful evidence can include a UK tenancy or council-tax record, utility bills, employment or pension records, school records, a sale or surrender of the UK home, travel history where relevant, the French lease or completion certificate, utility connection, insurance, employment contract, residence document and correspondence showing installation. No single document always proves the whole file. The aim is to show a consistent before-and-after chronology.
Service-Public identifies the current form as Cerfa 10070*03, the declaration of entry into France under the personal-goods relief. The form is intended for a private individual transferring personal goods from a country outside the European Union for reasons including moving, inheritance, study or marriage. It is transmitted to customs officers on entry into France. Service-Public also asks for a document proving residence in France, such as a utility bill, lease, rent receipt, property-tax notice or housing-tax notice, and a complete inventory.
French customs’ own page lists the inventory, the Cerfa form and documents proving the former residence and the installation in France. The France Diplomatie checklist adds a useful operational detail: the inventory should be detailed, estimated, dated and signed in two copies. It also explains that a removal company may ask for an attestation de changement de résidence, a certificate of change of residence, to authorise transit at departure. That certificate is not a universal substitute for the French customs declaration; it is one piece of the evidence chain.
Give the customs representative the complete list before the truck or container departs. Ask for a copy of the final declaration, the inventory submitted, the transport document, the customs office or electronic reference, and the document showing the relief was requested. If the shipment is split, the first declaration should identify the complete inventory for which relief is sought. The customs guidance allows importation in one or several instalments, but says that the inventory given at the first import must cover all goods for which relief is claimed.
The timing rules operate in both directions. The goods must enter France within 12 months after the residence transfer. A family that moves in March but sends its final books in May of the following year may be outside the normal relief period unless a specific rule or documented exception applies. Conversely, bringing the container early does not prove that the residence has already transferred. Coordinate the move date, the visa or residence position, the French home and the declaration rather than treating the removal booking as the legal trigger.
After entry, do not sell, rent out, lend or pledge goods admitted under the relief during the 12-month restriction described by French customs. If a family sells a sofa because it does not fit, that isolated act may still matter if the goods entered under the exemption and the restriction applies. Keep the stamped or electronically validated inventory and proof of entry. If a disposal is unavoidable, obtain written advice before acting and identify which item, date and rule are involved.
Before the UK departure, ask the UK side of the move the correct question as well. The GOV.UK customs declaration checker says that the need to declare goods depends on where the goods start or end their journey and specifically includes movements to or from the European Union. This does not grant French import relief; it is the UK-side route for checking whether an export or transit declaration is needed. The British government’s Living in France guidance also directs British residents to French authorities for French rules and warns that the embassy cannot give personalised advice on moving to France.
Do not confuse customs relief with income-tax residence, French property taxation or the tax treatment of UK bank accounts. A person may need to update the French tax administration separately after moving. The current impots.gouv.fr change-of-situation service is the appropriate starting point for address and tax-account questions. A correct customs inventory does not make a first French income-tax return, foreign-account declaration or residence analysis disappear.
A simple pre-departure checklist is:
- confirm that the UK was your normal residence for the required period;
- identify the legally relevant French residence-transfer date;
- mark every item that was not privately owned and used for at least six months;
- remove commercial, professional, restricted and vehicle items from the ordinary household list;
- prepare a detailed, valued, dated and signed inventory in two copies;
- complete Cerfa 10070*03 and agree who will submit it;
- assemble former-residence, French-installation, ownership and use evidence;
- check the UK export or transit position separately;
- obtain the declaration reference and validated inventory at entry; and
- calendar the 12-month import and post-entry disposal dates.
II. What should I do if French customs stops the removal or sends a bill?
A. How do I secure the file and challenge the assessment?
A stopped removal is a time-sensitive evidence problem before it becomes a legal appeal. Ask the carrier or customs representative for the written reason for the stop, the exact goods concerned, the customs declaration reference, any request for documents, the storage deadline and the amount claimed. Obtain the inventory actually transmitted, not only the version prepared at home. A mismatch between those two versions can explain a refusal even when the underlying move qualifies.
Preserve every message and create a chronology. Record the date and place of entry, the officer or customs office identified on the paperwork, the time the load was held, the documents already supplied and the documents still requested. Keep photographs of seals, cartons and labels. If a carton contains both personal goods and restricted or commercial items, ask for a line-by-line separation. A general statement that “the shipment is a house move” will not answer a question about a particular new appliance, vehicle or antique.
Check first whether the problem is curable. Common examples are an incomplete Cerfa, an inventory that says “miscellaneous”, no proof that the UK was the normal residence, no evidence of six months’ private use, a shipment arriving outside the 12-month window, a second-home destination or a professional item mixed into the personal load. Send a short indexed bundle: cover letter, declaration, inventory extract, proof of residence, proof of use, photographs and explanation of any exceptional item. Ask for written confirmation of what remains disputed.
If customs says that import duty or TVA is due, identify the document’s legal nature. A carrier’s invoice for an advance payment, a customs broker’s estimate, a request for a guarantee, a decision refusing relief and an avis de mise en recouvrement (formal notice placing a customs debt into recovery) are not interchangeable. The deadline and recipient of a challenge depend on the document. Do not send a generic complaint to a local office while ignoring the address and deadline printed on the formal notice.
For a French customs debt, the newly recodified national rules are important. Article L331-1 of the Code of Customs states that a challenge concerning a debt is sent to the authority that issued the notice of recovery, subject to EU customs time limits. It gives a three-year period following notification of that notice and a six-month period for the competent authority to decide. This is a route for a notified debt; it does not mean that a person should wait three years before challenging a removal that is accruing storage charges.
If you have already paid, the French customs procedure for reimbursement or remission may be relevant. The official customs application page says that the request is made by the person who paid or was asked to pay, in the Member State where the debt was notified. In France it goes to the customs office that validated the declaration or the service that notified the debt after clearance. It lists different periods depending on the ground, including three years for overpayment or an error by customs and an invalidation period for an invalid declaration.
A person who wants to preserve cash flow can ask for delayed payment in the challenge. Article L331-2 of the Code of Customs provides that, subject to Article 45 of the Union Customs Code, the debtor may be authorised to defer payment until the dispute ends when the challenge is accompanied by guarantees. The French text says: “il est autorisé à différer le paiement de la créance jusqu’à l’issue du litige”. This is not an automatic suspension. The guarantee question, the amount secured and any serious economic or social difficulty need to be addressed expressly.
Do not simply refuse delivery or stop payment without advice. If the carrier has a contractual lien, storage terms or a customs mandate, a dispute with the administration may not suspend the private transport contract. Ask for release against payment under protest, a guarantee or a segregated delivery if appropriate, but record that request in writing. Whether payment should be made immediately, secured or challenged depends on the notice, the risk of seizure, the goods’ value and the evidence available.
Calculate the financial exposure without overstating it. Assume, purely as an illustration, that customs accepts a €30,000 customs value and that the goods would otherwise bear 20% import VAT. The VAT component alone would be €6,000 before considering any customs duty, transport or other charge. That is not a quotation and does not decide the correct taxable base. The actual result depends on classification, origin, transport costs, the legal date, the relief conditions and whether the goods qualify at all. A correct relief claim can reduce the result to zero for the qualifying goods, but it does not make a weak inventory persuasive.
Ask for the calculation behind the bill. It should identify the goods, quantities, values, tariff classification where relevant, origin, transport element, duty, TVA and any penalty or storage cost. If the bill taxes the whole shipment, show which lines qualify and which do not. If customs refuses to split the load, explain why the personal items meet the conditions and ask for a separate treatment. A line-by-line schedule gives the administration a practical way to correct a partial error.
B. Which appeal, evidence and court strategy applies?
A refusal of an exemption or a demand for documents is an administrative decision. The recours gracieux, meaning a request to the same authority to reconsider, and the recours hiérarchique, meaning a request to the superior authority, should not be confused with a challenge to the customs debt or with court proceedings. Use the route stated in the decision and keep proof of delivery. A message sent to a removal company is not necessarily a valid appeal by the person legally liable for the debt.
The general administrative guarantees help when a decision gives no usable reasons. Article L211-2 of the Code of Relations between the Public and the Administration says that people have the right to be informed without delay of the reasons for unfavourable individual administrative decisions and includes refusals of an advantage that is a legal right when the conditions are met. The short statutory phrase is: “ont le droit d’être informées sans délai des motifs”. If the letter merely says “conditions not met”, ask which condition, which item and which evidence failed.
Article L211-5 of the same Code requires the motivation to be written and to state the legal and factual considerations supporting the decision. It describes a written motivation that must “comporter l’énoncé des considérations de droit et de fait”. This provision does not win the exemption by itself. It can, however, expose a decision that never addresses the evidence of residence, the six-month use period, the inventory or the specific exclusion relied upon.
For an actual customs decision, EU customs law also matters. The French customs procedure on challenging a decision explains that Article 44 of the Union Customs Code gives a directly concerned person a right of appeal and that a decision-making period can be 120 days in the situation described. The document you received may provide a different procedural route or refer to the competent national court. Keep the envelope, electronic timestamp and notice because the date of notification controls the calculation.
For a customs debt, Article L331-1 is usually more specific than the general Code of Relations between the Public and the Administration. Address the challenge to the issuing authority named in the notice and identify the debt, the legal basis for relief, each disputed item and the evidence. State the remedy sought: cancellation or reduction of the debt, recognition of the personal-goods relief, correction of the declaration, reimbursement of an overpayment or release of a specific item. Ask for written acknowledgment.
Article L411-2 of the Code of Relations between the Public and the Administration provides that “Toute décision administrative peut faire l’objet” within the period for court proceedings of a request for reconsideration or hierarchical review, and that such a review interrupts that period. That general rule must be applied carefully. Special EU customs and national customs provisions may govern the document you received. A protective appeal should name the decision, set out the factual grounds and reserve the right to use the specialised route; it should not assume that a general email has stopped every deadline.
The evidence bundle should answer the legal test in the same order as the law. First, show the former normal residence: dates, home, work or pension, family life and departure. Second, show the French installation: lease, purchase completion if relevant, utility, residence document, employment or retirement evidence. Third, show personal ownership and private use: dated invoices, insurance, photographs, warranties, bank records, household inventories and explanations for inherited or gifted goods. Fourth, show the timing: residence-transfer date, entry date and any later instalment. Fifth, isolate excluded goods and explain why each remaining line qualifies.
For a family, use a witness statement only as support, not as a replacement for objective documents. A statement can explain that an inherited piano was kept in the UK home, that a piece of furniture was bought second-hand without an invoice or that the final delivery was delayed by the carrier. It should give dates and attach photographs or correspondence. A customs officer may accept a coherent alternative proof, but the burden remains on the person claiming the relief under Article 50 octies B.
If the declaration was wrong, consider whether the appropriate request is correction or invalidation rather than a general remission. For example, a whole container declared under a vague description may need a corrected item list; an item placed under the wrong procedure may require a formal invalidation request; a debt already paid may require reimbursement. Ask the customs representative to state what electronic action is available and who must make it. Do not create a second inconsistent declaration without addressing the first one.
If customs physically retains the removal, act on two tracks. The first track seeks immediate practical protection: release against guarantee, segregation of non-disputed goods, reduced storage exposure, insurance confirmation and a written timetable. The second track challenges the legal basis: the residence conditions, the goods’ private use, the inventory, the timing and the calculation. A strong argument that ignores storage or delivery can still leave the family without essential belongings. A quick payment that ignores the challenge can make recovery harder.
Escalate promptly where the load contains a vehicle, antique, artwork, firearm, medication, animal, plant, commercial stock or professional equipment. Those items may engage rules outside the ordinary personal-move franchise. Also escalate where the move concerns a deceased person’s estate, a divorce, a company relocation, a second home or a person who continued working mainly in the UK. The question may no longer be a simple household transfer.
Keep the future-law issue visible in any appeal filed near 1 January 2027. Cite the law applicable on the date of import and explain why the later or earlier version does not govern the event. The future Article L213-10 and Article L213-35 help identify the direction of the recodification, while the 2026 ordinance explains the changed transition. This date discipline is especially important where a carrier prepared a form months earlier but customs accepted the goods after the changeover.
A short appeal structure can be effective:
- identify the person, shipment, declaration and contested notice;
- state that relief is claimed for the qualifying personal goods transferred with a change of normal residence;
- give the residence, ownership, use and import dates in a table;
- separate qualifying, excluded and disputed lines;
- attach the inventory, Cerfa, residence evidence, invoices, photographs and transport records;
- explain any missing document and offer an alternative proof;
- request the precise legal and factual reasons for any remaining refusal;
- ask for correction, release, reduction, reimbursement or deferred payment as appropriate; and
- send the challenge to the correct authority by a method that proves receipt.
The existing British-desk article on the first French tax return after moving from the UK covers the separate income-tax consequences. It should not be used as a substitute for customs evidence. The household-goods file is a border and import file; the tax-return file is a residence and reporting file. Keeping the two files separate reduces the risk that an officer, carrier or adviser receives a mixture of documents that answers neither question cleanly.
Conclusion
A British household can often bring used personal goods to France after Brexit without import duty and import VAT, but only when the move is a genuine transfer of normal residence and the conditions are proved. The safer sequence is to classify the goods, establish the residence chronology, prepare a detailed signed inventory, complete Cerfa 10070*03, coordinate the UK and French customs steps, and retain the validated declaration. The 12-month import window and the 12-month restriction on disposal should be calendared from the outset.
If the removal is stopped, obtain the precise reason and the formal document before arguing about the whole load. Separate a correctable paperwork problem from a refusal, a customs debt or a private carrier dispute. Challenge the correct decision to the correct authority, request deferred payment or release where the rules permit, and present evidence line by line. The applicable French VAT text depends on the import date, so a shipment close to the 2027 recodification should receive a date-specific review.
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