Inheritance Tax in France: A Guide for UK Expats

For UK expats living in France, or families with assets and beneficiaries in both countries, this distinction can materially affect how an estate is structured and passed on. French gifting rules and forced heirship provisions also differ from their UK equivalents, while UK IHT can remain relevant after a move to France.

This article explains how inheritance tax in France works, the allowances and rates that can apply, and how French gifting and succession rules need to be considered alongside UK IHT when planning a cross-border estate.

How Does Inheritance Tax Work in France?

Inheritance tax in France (droits de succession) is calculated for each beneficiary individually, based on the value of what they receive and their relationship to the deceased. A spouse can inherit tax-free, while an unrelated beneficiary receiving the same sum from the same estate can face a rate of up to 60%.

French tax authorities calculate the taxable estate by valuing the deceased’s assets and deducting eligible debts. The resulting net is then allocated among the heirs. Each beneficiary’s share is assessed separately, with any applicable personal allowances deducted before the relevant IHT rate applies.

This relationship-based approach makes beneficiaries’ identities an important part of estate planning for UK expats living in France or for UK nationals owning property in France.

How Does French Inheritance Tax Differ From UK IHT?

UK inheritance tax is principally an estate-based tax. HM Revenue and Customs applies a standard rate of 40% above the available nil-rate band (NRB) of £325,000 after relevant exemptions and reliefs. An additional residence nil-rate band (RNRB) of £175,000 can apply when a qualifying residence passes to direct descendants, subject to the relevant conditions and the £2 million taper threshold.

This differs from France, where each beneficiary receives an allowance based on their relationship to the deceased before tax is calculated on their share. The applicable IHT rates are also relationship-dependent and increase progressively for direct descendants.

The identity of the beneficiary can still affect UK exemptions and reliefs, including the spouse exemption and RNRB. However, the underlying approach remains different: UK IHT is principally estate-based, whereas French inheritance tax is calculated beneficiary by beneficiary.

Who Pays Inheritance Tax in France?

French inheritance tax applies based on the tax position of the deceased and beneficiary, as well as the location of the assets. Under French domestic rules, three main scenarios can bring an inheritance within scope:

1. The deceased was fiscally domiciled in France at the time of death.
2. The deceased was not fiscally domiciled in France, but the beneficiary is fiscally domiciled in France and has been so for at least six of the ten years preceding the year of the inheritance.
3. The assets are located in France.

A UK resident who owns a house in France can therefore leave their beneficiaries liable to French inheritance tax on property even if the deceased was never a French tax resident. The taxable value and any qualifying deductions are assessed under French rules, while the rate depends on the beneficiary’s relationship to the deceased.

These are France’s domestic tax rules. For a UK-France estate, the 1963 UK-France convention dealing with taxes imposed on death must also be considered because its rules can affect taxing rights and the relief available where both countries have a claim to tax the same estate or assets.

How Is French Tax Residence Determined?

Under French domestic rules, a person can be treated as fiscally domiciled in France if any of the following applies:

• Their household (foyer) or principal place of stay is in France.
• They carry out their principal professional activity in France, whether employed or self-employed, subject to relevant exceptions.
• The centre of their economic interests is in France.

The commonly cited 183-day test can be relevant when determining a person’s principal place of stay, but it is not the sole test of French fiscal residence. The location of a spouse or partner and children can also be relevant when establishing where a person’s foyer is located.

Meeting one of the French domestic tests can be sufficient to establish fiscal domicile in France. Where both France and another country treat a person as resident, however, the applicable tax treaty may also need to be considered.

Becoming resident in France does not necessarily end your exposure to UK IHT. Since 6 April 2025, the UK’s long-term residence (LTR) framework has determined whether overseas assets fall within the scope of UK IHT. UK IHT exposure can therefore continue after you relocate and become resident elsewhere.

Since residence, fiscal domicile and long-term residence status can affect which country’s tax rules apply to an estate, confirming each position is an essential step in cross-border estate planning.

How Much Is Inheritance Tax in France?

Inheritance tax in France runs from 0% to 60%, depending on the beneficiary’s relationship to the deceased. The closer the family relationship, the lower the tax rate tends to be. Before tax is calculated, each beneficiary can also apply any inheritance tax allowance, called abattement, available for that relationship.

French Inheritance Tax Allowances

French inheritance tax allowances become progressively more generous the closer your relationship to the deceased. When applying these allowances, the tax administration can also take account of relevant lifetime gifts made by the deceased to the same beneficiary during the preceding 15 years. That makes the timing of gifts an important part of French estate planning.

Current available allowances include:

If a parent leaves €600,000 in investments to two children equally, each child would inherit €300,000. Each child can also deduct their €100,000 personal allowance, leaving €200,000 taxable for each child. Collectively, the two allowances remove €200,000 from the amount subject to inheritance tax.

A further €159,325 allowance can be available to a beneficiary who meets the conditions of the disability allowance. Where applicable, this is additional to the beneficiary’s other personal allowance.

French IHT Rates

For direct line heirs such as children and parents, tax is charged progressively from 5% to 45%:

A beneficiary does not pay the highest applicable rate on their entire inheritance. Each rate applies only to the corresponding portion of the taxable share.

Returning to the example above, each child’s €200,000 taxable share is taxed across four brackets:

1. The first €8,072 is taxed at 5%.
2. The next €4,037 is taxed at 10%.
3. The next €3,823 is taxed at 15%.
4. The remaining €184,068 is taxed at 20%.

The result is an inheritance tax liability of approximately €38,194 per child.

More distant relatives and unrelated beneficiaries can face substantially higher rates of up to 60%:

A sibling may qualify for a full inheritance tax exemption if the relevant statutory conditions are met, including that:

• They have lived continuously with the deceased for at least five years preceding their death
• They are unmarried, widowed, divorced, or separated at the time of death
• They are over 50 or unable to work because of a qualifying disability at the time of death

How Does Lifetime Gifting Work in France?

You can use lifetime gift allowances to pass assets to family members while reducing the amount that may ultimately be subject to inheritance tax. The amount you can gift tax-free depends on the relationship between the donor and the recipient:

An additional family money gift allowance of €31,865 per donor can apply to qualifying cash gifts to children, grandchildren and, in certain circumstances, great-grandchildren or nieces and nephews. Among the conditions, the recipient must be an adult or emancipated minor and the donor must be under 80.

Gifts to a spouse or PACS partner do not carry the same exemption as an inheritance on death. Instead, a specific lifetime gift allowance applies, after which gift tax can arise under the applicable scale. This means lifetime gifts between spouses and inheritances between spouses can receive quite different French tax treatment.

The 15-Year Gift Rule

French gift allowances can generally be used again after 15 years.

France keeps a record of relevant prior gifts between the same donor and recipient. Gifts made during the preceding 15 years can therefore affect the allowances and tax bands available for a later gift or inheritance. Once the relevant 15-year period has elapsed, the earlier gift generally ceases to be taken into account for this fiscal calculation and the allowance can be available again.

This does not mean that every gift made within 15 years of death is simply added back into the deceased’s estate.

The system is therefore quite different from the UK’s seven-year gift rule for Potentially Exempt Transfers (PETs). Under UK IHT rules, an outright gift to an individual can fall outside the donor’s taxable estate if they survive seven years after making it, provided the transfer qualifies as a PET and other relevant rules do not bring value back into the estate.

The French 15-year rule is not a longer version of the UK seven-year rule. The two rules perform different functions. France uses the 15-year period when determining the treatment of relevant previous gifts, including the availability of allowances, while the UK PET regime determines whether a qualifying lifetime transfer remains relevant to the IHT calculation on death.

UK expats must therefore consider gift rules in both systems. A transfer that is outside the UK death estate under the seven-year PET rules may still affect the French tax calculation between the same donor and beneficiary. Equally, using a French gift allowance does not determine the UK IHT treatment.

The 1963 UK-France convention dealing with taxes on death does not generally extend to lifetime gifts, making separate analysis particularly important when assets are transferred during life.

That is why cross-border estate planning advice is crucial. Titan Wealth International can help UK expats assess existing and planned gifts under both UK and French rules, so that gifting decisions fit into a wider estate plan.

How Do French Forced Heirship Rules Affect UK Expats?

For individuals whose succession is governed by the law of England and Wales, testamentary freedom is generally much greater than under French forced heirship rules. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own succession laws, so it is important not to treat the UK as having a single succession regime.

When French succession law applies and there is no will, French law sets a statutory order of heirs:

• Children and their descendants: Children are first in the order of succession, subject to the surviving spouse’s rights.
• Parents and siblings: If there are no children, parents and siblings may inherit, with the division depending on which relatives survive.
• Grandparents and other ascendants: They may inherit where there are no descendants, parents or siblings with prior rights.
• More distant relatives: More remote family members may inherit according to the statutory order where closer heirs do not exist.

A married spouse has separate rights alongside this order, depending on the family situation:

A PACS civil partner does not have the same automatic succession rights as a married spouse. Without a will naming them, a PACS partner generally has no statutory right to inherit, despite being exempt from French inheritance tax on assets that they do inherit.

With a will, the statutory order of heirs can be changed, but only within limits set by forced heirship (réserve héréditaire) where French succession law applies.

The share of the estate reserved for children is as follows:

Succession law and inheritance tax should be kept separate. Succession law determines who is legally entitled to receive the estate. French inheritance tax determines the tax consequences for the beneficiaries who receive it.

Can UK Nationals Avoid French Forced Heirship Rules?

Under the EU Succession Regulation, known as Brussels IV, a British national can generally elect for the law of their nationality to govern their succession as a whole, typically through an express choice of law in their will.

The UK itself has separate territorial succession-law systems. For a British national connected with England and Wales, for example, the relevant law may be the law of England and Wales rather than a generic “UK succession law”. The appropriate choice should therefore be identified carefully when the will is prepared.

However, a 2021 reform added a compensatory right to Article 913 of the French Civil Code. In defined circumstances, where the deceased or at least one child is an EU national or habitually resident in the EU at death, and the foreign succession law provides no mechanism protecting the children’s reserved rights, a child may be able to claim compensation from assets situated in France, up to the rights French law would otherwise have provided.

This is a succession-law provision, not an inheritance tax charge.

Importantly, choosing the law of your nationality to govern succession does not change the French inheritance tax position. The choice of law determines how the estate is distributed; it does not decide which country can tax the inheritance. UK expats therefore need to consider succession law and tax separately when reviewing their wills and estate plans.

How Do French and UK Inheritance Tax Rules Interact for Expats?

Moving from the UK to France does not automatically remove UK IHT exposure. At the same time, becoming fiscally domiciled in France can bring worldwide assets within the scope of French IHT. Both countries’ rules can therefore be relevant to the same estate.

There is another distinction worth keeping in mind. French fiscal domicile, habitual residence for succession-law purposes, UK tax residence and UK long-term residence status are not interchangeable. Common-law domicile can also remain relevant when applying the 1963 UK-France death-duty convention, despite the UK’s move away from domicile as the main basis for determining the domestic territorial scope of IHT.

Why Does Moving to France Not Automatically End UK IHT Liability?

Since 6 April 2025, the territorial scope of UK IHT for individuals has been based primarily on residence history rather than domicile under the LTR framework. Broadly, an individual who has been UK tax resident for at least 10 of the previous 20 tax years can be an LTR, bringing their overseas assets within the scope of UK IHT.

Transitional provisions can produce a different result for certain individuals who became non-UK resident in 2025–26, particularly those who were not UK domiciled or deemed domiciled on 30 October 2024.

Leaving the UK does not necessarily end this exposure immediately. A post-departure tail can keep a former LTR within the worldwide scope of UK IHT for a further period, based on their residence history:

UK-situs property can remain within the scope of UK IHT even where the deceased is not an LTR. However, being within scope does not necessarily mean tax is payable: exemptions, excluded-property rules, reliefs and the UK-France convention can affect the final liability.

Assets that may require UK IHT consideration include:

• UK real estate property
• UK bank accounts
• Investments and shares in UK companies

Pensions need separate treatment. For deaths on or after 6 April 2027, most unused pension funds and pension death benefits will be brought within the value of a deceased person’s estate for UK IHT purposes, subject to statutory exclusions. UK expats with UK pension funds should therefore include these changes when reviewing their estate planning.

How Does French IHT Treat UK Expats?

Fiscal domicile and asset location determine the potential exposure to French IHT. The position of both the deceased and beneficiary can affect the outcome:

From the deceased’s side, inheritance tax in France for residents can apply to assets wherever they are located if the deceased was fiscally domiciled in France at death, subject to any applicable international convention.

From the beneficiary’s side, inheritance tax in France for non residents generally applies to French-situs assets where the deceased was not fiscally domiciled in France and the beneficiary does not meet the French six-out-of-ten-year residence condition.

Where the deceased was not fiscally domiciled in France but a beneficiary has been fiscally domiciled there for at least six of the ten years preceding the year of the inheritance, France can bring that beneficiary’s worldwide inheritance within the domestic scope of French inheritance tax.

This means that inheritance tax on a French holiday home can arise even where both the deceased and beneficiary live in the UK. Conversely, a long-term French-resident beneficiary may face a wider French tax exposure when inheriting assets situated outside France.

These are the French domestic rules. For UK-France estates, the 1963 convention must then be considered to establish how its fiscal domicile, situs and double-taxation provisions affect the final position.

Can Double Taxation Relief Apply?

The UK and France have had a double taxation convention dealing with taxes imposed on death since 1963, and it remains relevant to UK-France estates.

This is separate from the 2008 UK-France convention dealing principally with income and capital gains taxes. The 1963 convention applies to taxes arising on death and does not generally cover lifetime gifts.

The convention does more than provide a simple foreign tax credit. It contains its own rules dealing with fiscal domicile and the location of assets for treaty purposes. Depending on the circumstances, those rules can restrict one country’s taxing rights or determine how double taxation relief is given.

Where both countries are entitled to tax the same property, credit relief may be available so that the same value is not taxed twice without relief. The amount and mechanism of relief depend on the convention and the particular assets involved.

An important complication for UK expats is that common-law domicile can still be relevant when applying this 1963 convention, even though the UK’s domestic IHT framework has used long-term residence rather than domicile to determine the scope of overseas assets since 6 April 2025.

What Should UK Expats Living in France Consider?

Inheritance tax in France and the UK operate under different domestic rules, so a structure that was suitable while you were a UK resident may produce a different legal or tax outcome after relocating to France.

A cross-border estate plan should review:

• Wills and succession arrangements: Check whether existing UK wills remain appropriate after moving to France, and consider whether an election under Brussels IV for the law of your nationality is appropriate.
• Lifetime gifting: Review previous gifts and planned transfers under the French 15-year rules and the UK’s seven-year PET rules. The 1963 UK-France death-duty convention does not generally resolve taxation of lifetime gifts.
• Trusts and other UK structures: Reassess existing UK trusts, companies and other planning arrangements because their French legal and tax treatment can differ substantially from their treatment in the UK.
• LTR status: Establish whether you are a UK LTR and whether overseas assets remain within the scope of UK IHT.
• Beneficiary arrangements: Confirm that intended beneficiaries are compatible with both the succession rules that apply to the estate and the French tax treatment applicable to each relationship.
• Treaty position: Where both countries may tax an estate, establish whether the 1963 convention changes taxing rights or provides double-taxation relief.

Estate Planning Strategies for UK Expats in France

If properly executed and suitable for the circumstances, several strategies can form part of French estate planning:

For UK expats, effective estate planning entails considering the entire estate across both jurisdictions, rather than individual assets or IHT reduction strategies in isolation. Regularly reviewing existing structures and arrangements can help ensure that plans continue to reflect your wishes and remain effective under both jurisdictions.