Is there inheritance tax in France? The actual numbers

This guide is general information, not tax advice. Carroll Law handles a French estate on both sides — who inherits and how the assets transfer, and the French succession duty itself: we compute it, prepare the declaration and file it as part of the work. Tax back home is not ours, and we say plainly and early where an adviser there is needed.

Who pays what

French succession duty (droits de succession) is charged on each beneficiary’s share, with an allowance and a rate scale set by the relationship:

• Surviving spouse or PACS partner: wholly exempt. No French inheritance tax at all.
• Each child: a €100,000 allowance, then a sliding scale — 5% on the first slice, rising through 10% and 15% to 20% for everything between about €16,000 and €552,000 of taxable share, and 30–45% only on genuinely large shares.
• Brothers and sisters: €15,932 allowance, then 35% up to €24,430 and 45% above.
• Nephews and nieces: €7,967 allowance, then a flat 55%.
• Unrelated beneficiaries (including unmarried partners without a PACS): €1,594 allowance, then a flat 60%.

A non-resident heir of a non-resident owner is taxed only on the French assets. Unlike Italy or Spain, France taxes real estate at its full market value at the date of death — no cadastral discount — and household contents can be brought in at a default 5% of the estate unless inventoried.

Two worked examples

A €200,000 flat to one adult child living abroad: allowance €100,000, leaving €100,000 taxable. The ladder gives roughly €404 + €404 + €573 + €16,814 — about €18,200. This is the number that surprises British families used to a spouse-and-nil-rate-band world.

A €500,000 estate (house and account), half to the spouse, a quarter to each of two children: the spouse’s €250,000 passes tax-free; each child’s €125,000 share is €25,000 taxable after the allowance, giving about €3,200 each — roughly €6,400 for the whole family. The shape of the estate matters as much as its size.

Deadlines and payment

The succession declaration is due within six months of a death in France and twelve months where the death happened abroad — the usual clock for the families we act for. The duty is payable on filing; France allows payment by instalments, and in some cases deferral, against security and with interest. Late filing attracts interest of 0.20% per month plus surcharges that escalate if a formal demand is ignored.

And what does late actually cost? Interest runs at 0.20% a month from the day the declaration was due. On top of that a 10% surcharge is added from the first day of the thirteenth month after the death — so a family that lets the twelve-month foreign-death clock run out meets it almost at once. Ignore a formal demand for ninety days and the surcharge rises to 40%. France gives no right to an extension, but there is one practical move that does work: a voluntary payment on account before the deadline stops the interest clock — worth making where a probate at home is running slow.

Why the bank waits for the tax office

French banks may not release more than €5,000 of a deceased customer’s funds without the tax clearance certificate for non-residents’ estates, and French property cannot be put into the heirs’ names without the notaire’s property attestation. So two things run alongside each other. The tax return is ours: we compute the duty, prepare the declaration and lodge it. The notaire does what French law reserves to him — the act that establishes who the heirs are and, where there is property, the attestation and its publication. The releases follow from both, which is why the two are run to one timetable rather than two.

What about tax at home?

The United Kingdom and France have an estate-duty convention from 1963 that still governs: French duty paid on French real estate is credited against UK inheritance tax on the same property, and French bank accounts of a UK-domiciled person are generally left to the UK to tax. The overall UK position of the estate — including the post-2025 residence-based rules — belongs with your UK adviser, and we work alongside them.

The same question in our other countries: Portugal · Spain · Italy.