From parcel taxes to RoissyBus closure: ten regulatory changes landing in France on 1 March

In its traditional end-of-month bulletin, English-language daily *The Connexion* listed a raft of measures voted in the delayed 2026 Budget that take effect on 1 March – many with direct consequences for internationally mobile staff, e-commerce and company car fleets. 1) A €2 “small-parcel eco-contribution” now applies to all packages under €150 arriving from outside the EU, including corporate samples and spare parts couriered from UK or US hubs. Logistics teams should expect carriers to pass the fee to senders and adjust cost codes accordingly. 2) Hospital ‘forfait’ charges rise, increasing international health-insurance claims for expatriates lacking top-up cover. 3) Ile-de-France lifts its horsepower tax to €68.95 per chevaux fiscaux, making company-car leasing more expensive; Corsica and two other regions also hike rates. 4) Road-worthiness tests for 50 cc mopeds will add a new speed-tampering check, relevant for last-mile delivery fleets. 5) The RoissyBus airport shuttle is formally withdrawn, following the decision analysed above. Other items include the automatic closure of 3.2 million Plan Épargne Logement accounts that reach 15 years, a new buy-to-let tax incentive, and higher gas reference prices.



VisaHQ’s corporate visa-management platform can also help organisations adapt to these changes by streamlining French visa and residence-permit formalities for assignees and frequent travelers. HR and mobility teams can rely on VisaHQ to track document expirations, arrange courier services and obtain the correct entry clearances quickly—minimising downtime while employees negotiate France’s shifting fiscal landscape. Full details are available at https://www.visahq.com/france/

For HR and global-mobility teams the key action points are to brief relocating employees on rising everyday costs, review car allowances, and audit parcel-shipping workflows to mitigate the new tax burden. Inter-company service centres that ship replacement laptops or phones should consolidate consignments to reduce the per-unit fee. The bulletin underscores the increasingly granular nature of French fiscal tweaks: many measures are temporary, expiring when EU-wide rules (on e-commerce import VAT, for example) come into force in 2027. Firms should therefore build flexibility into expense policies and use smart cards or app-based per-diem systems that can be re-programmed rapidly as local levies move. Finally, expatriate families should note that enhanced child-benefit supplements will now start at age 18 instead of 14, cutting annual household income by up to €900 for those with teenagers. Mobility advisers may need to revise cost-of-living allowances or school-fee subsidies to offset the shortfall, particularly in high-cost cities such as Paris and Lyon.