Prices, Terms and Conditions

Mme Eloisa Simon dos Santos (Thomas) – Traducteur et interprète assermentée en portugais en en anglais – sur la liste des experts judiciaires près la Cour d’Appel de Poitiers
Mrs. Eloisa Simon dos Santos (Thomas) – Sworn translator and interpreter in Portuguese and English – on the list of judicial experts at the Court of Appeal of Poitiers

You’d like to know in advance how much my help will cost you? Not easy to say as every assignment is different. However, have a look at the way I work, and if you agree to these terms, then get in touch with me.

1 Give me a call or write me an email, it’s FREE. During your introductory FREE phone call or short email, I will let you know if I can deal with your query. Depending on the type of it, I will ask you to send me a further email to clarify matters;

2 Following that, I will asses your query and if possible, I will give you a ballpark estimate, whenever possible, of the time it might take to deal with it and how I propose to proceed. You will be asked to provide your full address and contact details. Face-to-face or virtual consultations may be necessary in most circumstances especially for new clients. Please bear it in mind that this will be only a guess estimate, and that more often than not there are other unforeseen issues that may arise during my work for you;

3 I will start working on your behalf and charging for my services only after you provide your full contact details by email and accept my “Prices, Terms & Conditions” by signing, dating and returning to me the last page of our agreement – “Contrat Commercial de Prestation de Service” – as well as paying the retainer (whenever applicable) prior to commencement of work. After payment of retainer is cleared, I will then proceed and start dealing with your request;

4 Once I have completed the work for you, you will be informed either by mail, email or a phone call; accordingly, the documents will be sent to you by post or email if applicable, unless you specify which way you prefer to receive them. Sometimes an appointment at my office might be necessary;

5Finally, your invoice will then be produced and sent to you by post or by email at the end of the calendar month for all works carried out during that month or any other work previously requested that has not been billed. The time spent/the work description/the costs in dealing with your assignment request is measured by a software called “HARVEST” which will automatically generate your invoice with all these details included in. Sales of services (invoice) is subject to VAT at 20%.

Prices, Terms and Conditions

All services have standard prices which cover most situations. Most work, however, is usually a mixture of services and you may prefer a quotation for more complex lengthy work, if so, please contact me and if it’s possible to give you a fixed quote, I will endeavor to do so. Up-to-date information on progress of work related expenses is available for all clients for costs already incurred.

Standard prices
are charged by units of one quarter of an hour for consultations over the phone, on Skype, Zoom, Messenger, WhatsApp, Microsof Teams or in my office – internet searches – emails – phone calls – letter & document writing – admin procedures – interpretation/certain translations, that is, time spent working for you. Each unit is charged at 14,25 HT € per each quarter of an hour, making a total of 57 HT € per hour. All worked is tracked and recorded by the software called “HARVEST”.

Business set-up and registration packages are available for a fixed fee and by request only (Entreprise Individuelle au regime de la MICRO-ENTREPRISE).

From 2022:

  • Retainer
    Before commencing any work, I shall be able to request signature of our agreement “Contrat Commercial de Prestation de Service” and will require an advance against fees and other charges. This retainer will be deposited into the company’s account, and it will be used to pay your invoice and any other costs incurred. I shall be entitled to ask you to make further retainer payments from time to time as the matter advances and if the earlier retainer payment has been used. Any remaining balance of the retainer will be returned to you upon the completion of my services. I reserve the right to decline to act if there is a failure or delay in payment of any retainer requested. A non-payment of a retainer may also result in a delay in my undertaking of work or providing services for you, and it may result in withdrawing my services and representation altogether.

 A retainer or deposit will be asked in advance. Signature of our agreement “Contrat Commercial de Prestation de Service” as well as a deposit payment is required in advance prior to commencing any work for administrative files and translations/interpretation. 

TAX RETURN 2022
ONLINE or ON PAPER – a minimum SET FEE of 60€ HT for simple returns – prices may vary for complex or first time tax declarations

Deadline paper:  in May (please provide your prefilled forms if you have received them)
Deadline Online: in June (for existing accounts, please provide your N° Fiscal and password – for registering an online tax account, please provide your blue 2042 prefilled CERFA form and your last year’s tax return or your “revenu fiscal de référence)

A form will be sent to you for submission of your 2022 income tax declaration, and it must be returned by the end of March or the latest Mid-April. Any new requests for filling in tax return arriving after 30 of April will not be accepted.

Prices 2023 – before VAT (HT); VAT inclusive (TTC)
Consultations |60 HT € per hour or 72€ TTC  per hour
Translation |60 HT € per hour or 72€ TTC  per hour or price range varying from 0.12 HT – 0.19 HT € centimes per word (source language) for short documents or extensive projects~~depending on the source language or field of translation (technical, commercial, legal, etc) or by page for large technical translation files : please ask for a quote for certified translations in English and Portuguese
Interpretation |60 HT € or 72€ TTC per hour
Internet search |60 HT € or 72€ TTC per hour
Telephone calls or emails |Introductory email or first short call from client is FREE. ~~All other calls and emails are charged 1,00 HT € per minute

Travel |0.75 HT € per kilometer for a round trip
*Additional charge for time spent on the road beyond 2 hours of a round trip.
For example: 1 h 12 min (72 mins exceeded) i.e. 50% on the total of minutes exceeded = 36 mins @ 0.95€/min = 34,20€ additional charge (in accordance with the terms & conditions of sale from 1st January 2022)

Weekend rates from 7pm Friday to 23pm Sunday |78 HT € or 93,60 € TTC per hour

Payment terms

All work carried out for a client is invoiced at the end of each calendar month, and standard payment is 15 days from the invoice date.
Delay or failure of payment or response following 3 invoice reminders will result in additional fees charged, interest charges applicable for late payments as per invoice. Bailiffs’ debt recovery incurred charges applied as per invoice. Payment is by cash, card, cheque or by bank transfer in Euros [flat transfer fees apply for SEPA (Eurozone) and international bank & financial institutions payment transfers – these fees will show in your invoice ]. Any fees incurred on receipt of payment of invoices are charged to the client. Should you forget to add the relevant fee to your total amount due, a further invoice will be sent to that effect or the fee will be added to any subsequent invoices.

As per invoice specification: Tout incident de non paiement est passible d’intérêt de retard (taux des pénalités : 15%). Indemnité forfaitaire pour frais de recouvrement due au créancier en cas de retard de paiement: 40€.