Inheritance Tax France 2026

No — spouses and registered PACS partners are completely exempt from French inheritance tax (droits de succession) since the loi TEPA of August 2007. A spouse can inherit an estate of any size — €1m, €10m, €100m — and pay zero French inheritance tax. This full exemption applies to both marriage and PACS (civil partnership). Unmarried cohabitants (concubins) are not covered — they receive only a €1.594 allowance and face the 60% unrelated person rate. PACS partners must register their partnership at the tribunal judiciaire or notaire.

Each child receives a €100.000 personal allowance per parent. For a child inheriting €400.000 from one parent: taxable base = €300.000. Tax = 5% on €8.072 (€403) + 10% on €4.037 (€404) + 15% on €3.823 (€573) + 20% on €283.069 (€56.614) = approximately €58.000 total, or 14.5% effective rate on the full €400.000. For two parents dying with the same estate, the child gets €100.000 exemption from each parent — so €200.000 total tax-free across both inheritances.

France's rappel fiscal aggregates all taxable gifts received from the same person within the 15 years before their death with the current inheritance — for tax calculation purposes. The effect: if a parent gives a child €100.000 in Year 1 (using up the full allowance tax-free), and dies in Year 14, the child has zero allowance remaining — the entire inheritance is taxable from the first euro. If the parent dies in Year 16, the gift has dropped out of the 15-year window and the full €100.000 allowance is available again. Planning implication: gifts must be made at least 15 years before death to fully benefit from the allowance reset.

Assurance-vie (life insurance/investment wrapper) is France's primary estate planning tool — holding approximately 54% of French household financial wealth. Money invested in assurance-vie passes outside the standard succession to named beneficiaries, under a specific tax regime. For premiums paid before age 70: each beneficiary receives a €152.500 allowance (versus €100.000 in succession), taxed at 20% up to €700.000 and 31.25% above. This allowance is completely separate from the succession €100.000 — so a parent can give a child €100.000 through succession AND €152.500 through assurance-vie tax-free. For unrelated beneficiaries (e.g., a partner or friend), assurance-vie at 20-31.25% vs succession at 60% is dramatically more favourable.

Yes — French inheritance tax applies in two situations for non-residents: (1) If the deceased was domiciled in France — worldwide assets are taxable (Article 750 ter CGI); (2) If the deceased was not France-domiciled but owned French situs assets (real estate, French company shares, French bank accounts) — only those assets are taxable. If the heir is domiciled in France but the deceased was not, French assets are taxable from the French side. France has inheritance tax treaties with: USA, UK, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Sweden, and several others — which may provide relief. The France-USA treaty is particularly important for US citizens with French real estate.