French inheritance works in two separate layers. The law layer decides who inherits — and for residents of France, French forced heirship reserves a fixed share for your children, whatever your will says. The tax layer decides what heirs pay — from 0% for a spouse to 60% for an unmarried partner. Expats routinely fix one layer and forget the other. This guide walks you through both, and through the two legal escape hatches that matter.
What's in this guide
The two layers: law vs tax
Everything confusing about French inheritance untangles once you separate these:
- Layer 1 — succession LAW: who gets what. Default rule for a French resident: French law, including forced heirship. Changeable (partly) by choosing your national law — see below.
- Layer 2 — inheritance TAX: what each heir pays the French state. Based on residence and where assets sit. Not changeable by choosing a foreign law. An English will under English law does not make English tax rates apply.
Keep this pair in mind for the rest of the page — and for the rest of your life in France.
Forced heirship, with a picture
French law (the réserve héréditaire) guarantees your children a fixed share of your estate. Only the rest — the quotité disponible — is yours to give freely:
For Anglo-Saxon families used to full testamentary freedom, this is a culture shock. It applies to residents of France by default — including foreign nationals — and to French real estate in many non-resident cases.
Escape #1: choosing your national law (Brussels IV)
Since 2015, the EU succession regulation 650/2012 ("Brussels IV") applies in France — including to nationals of non-EU countries like the US, UK or Australia who live here:
- Default: the law of your habitual residence governs your whole estate → French law for residents of France.
- Your option: elect, in your will, the law of your nationality — English law, a US state's law, etc. — and recover the testamentary freedom your home country gives you.
The fine print, honestly:
- A 2021 French law gave children a compensatory claim over French-situated assets when the chosen foreign law has no reserved share. Its reach was debated for years; the European Commission examined it and closed its inquiry in June 2026, confirming that the choice of national law remains usable in practice. It still needs careful drafting — this is notaire territory.
- Choosing a foreign law changes nothing about French inheritance TAX (layer 2). English law + French tax rates is a perfectly possible combination.
Bottom line: for many expat families the election is worth making — as part of a coordinated set of wills drafted with a notaire experienced in international estates.
Inheritance tax: allowances & rates (2026)
| Heir | Tax-free allowance | Rates after allowance |
|---|---|---|
| Spouse / PACS partner | ✅ Fully exempt — 0% | |
| Each child (and parents) | €100,000 | Progressive 5% → 45% most common band: 20% between €15,933 and €552,324 |
| Grandchild (direct gift/inheritance) | €1,594 (inheritance; gifts have better allowances) | Same progressive scale |
| Brother / sister | €15,932 | 35% then 45% |
| Nephew / niece | €7,967 | 55% |
| Everyone else — unmarried partner, stepchild, friend | €1,594 | 60% |
Source: French official rates in force 2026 (service-public.fr). A disabled heir gets an extra €159,325 allowance, cumulative.
The 60% trap — and the fixes
Look at the last line of that table again. In French tax law, your unmarried partner of 25 years is a legal stranger: no automatic inheritance rights, and 60% tax on anything your will leaves them, after a token €1,594.
Real-world example: an unmarried British couple owns a €500,000 French house 50/50. One partner dies, leaving their half to the other by will. Tax bill on the €250,000 share: roughly €149,000. Married? €0.
The fixes, from simplest to most technical
- Marry or PACS. Both make the survivor 100% tax-exempt. (⚠️ A PACS partner still needs a will to inherit anything — PACS alone gives tax exemption, not inheritance rights.)
- Tontine clause at property purchase: survivor is treated as sole owner from day one — decided at the deed, hard to add later. See the property guide.
- Assurance vie — the big one, next section.
Escape #2: assurance vie, the legal escape hatch
Money inside an assurance vie passes outside your estate, straight to the beneficiaries you name — anyone, regardless of family ties:
| Premiums paid… | Each named beneficiary gets | Then |
|---|---|---|
| Before age 70 | €152,500 tax-free — even an unmarried partner or stepchild | 20% up to €852,500, 31.25% beyond |
| After age 70 | €30,500 global allowance on premiums | Standard rates on remaining premiums; all gains stay tax-free |
Do the maths on our unmarried couple: route €152,500 to the partner through assurance vie and the tax on that slice drops from 60% to 0%. That's why virtually every French estate plan is built around this wrapper — and why funding it before your 70th birthday is one of the most time-sensitive moves in French wealth planning.
Bonus for internationally mobile families: if the insured and the beneficiary are both non-residents of France at the time of death, the French levy doesn't apply at all — details in the assurance vie guide.
And here's the easy part: I do all of it for you. I open the assurance vie, choose the funds that match your risk profile and your goals, write the beneficiary clause properly — and it's done. Protecting your family shouldn't be complicated.
Want to know exactly what your family would pay today, and how to shrink it legally?
Lifetime gifts: the 15-year rhythm
France rewards giving early. The headline numbers:
- €100,000 per parent, per child, every 15 years — gift-tax free. A couple with two children can pass €400,000 tax-free every 15 years, on top of everything else on this page.
- Additional allowances exist for grandchildren and for family cash gifts (conditions on age apply).
- Property can be given in dismembered ownership (you keep the usufruct — the right to live in or rent it — and give the bare ownership at a discounted tax value). Powerful, technical, notaire-led.
The pattern: French inheritance tax punishes the unprepared and rewards the organized. Fifteen-year clocks mean the best time to start was yesterday; the second best is before your next birthday.
Cross-border estates: when assets live in several countries
- French real estate is always within reach of French inheritance tax, wherever you and your heirs live.
- France has few inheritance-tax treaties. The France-UK treaty (1963) is a rare, useful one; with Australia there is none (and Australia has no inheritance tax — so French tax simply applies); the France-US situation has its own treaty rules for estate allocation.
- Deadlines: declaration and payment within 6 months of a death in France (12 months if the death occurred abroad). Interest runs after that.
- Wills: foreign wills are generally recognized, but the robust setup is coordinated wills (one per jurisdiction, mutually compatible, with your choice of law stated) — drafted with a notaire used to international files. I'm not a notaire; I structure the financial side (assurance vie, ownership, liquidity for the tax bill) and work alongside yours.
Your action checklist
- Map your family & marital status against the tax table above. Unmarried couple? Fix that layer first (marriage/PACS decision).
- Write or update your will(s) — with an explicit choice of national law if it serves you, coordinated across countries.
- Open/fund assurance vie before 70, and write the beneficiary clause carefully (a badly drafted clause is a classic source of family disputes).
- Structure property purchases before signing — tontine, ownership shares, or dismemberment.
- Start the 15-year gift clocks if transmission to children is a goal.
- Keep liquidity in sight: heirs must pay the tax within 6 months — a plan that leaves them asset-rich and cash-poor isn't finished.
Written by Vincent Auvrignon
Independent financial advisor (CGP) in France — CIF, IOBSP, MIA, ORIAS n°25004390, member of CNCEF. I help international families in France structure their wealth so that the people they love — not the tax office — come first. More about working with me →
The honest, regulatory bit 🤝 — everything on this page is general education, shared in good faith and to the best of my knowledge at the time of writing. It is not personal advice: figures are indicative, rules change, past performance never guarantees future results, and every situation is genuinely different. Before any decision, we verify what applies to your case — that's exactly what the free first call is for. I'm a regulated French advisor (CIF — ORIAS n°25004390), and formal recommendations always come in writing, after a signed engagement letter.