Your father bought the stone house above Sarlat in 2004, spent twenty summers repairing its roof, and died last month in Kent, leaving an English will that gives everything to his three children. Within weeks two letters arrive. The French notaire (the public officer who settles successions in France) asks for a déclaration de succession (the French succession return) within months and warns that the French house is taxable in France. HM Revenue & Customs treats the same house as part of a worldwide estate for British inheritance tax. Each side claims its share, each uses a different definition of domicile, and the family fears paying twice on the same walls. This position is normal, and it is solvable. Since Brexit you are a third-country national family, yet a treaty signed in London on 21 June 1963 still decides which country taxes the French property, which country taxes the rest, and how the country of domicile wipes out the double charge through a credit. This article explains the two halves of every British death with French property: first, which country taxes what under the 1963 treaty and the French territorial rules; second, how the French succession is filed, computed and challenged when the bill is wrong. Every French term is explained as it appears, and every decisive rule is tied to its official text.

I. Which country taxes the French house when a British owner dies

A. Your French house is always taxable in France, wherever the deceased lived

The first rule is the simplest and the hardest to accept for an English family. The French house is taxed in France even if the deceased lived, died and was domiciled in England, even if the will is English, and even if British inheritance tax also applies. French domestic law says so, and the treaty confirms it instead of removing it. Under Article 750 ter of the French General Tax Code (Code général des impôts), where the deceased had no French tax domicile, French transfer duties still catch French-situs property, whether held directly or indirectly: « Les biens meubles et immeubles, que ces derniers soient possédés directement ou indirectement, situés en France » fall within French succession duty. The indirect-holding language matters enormously for British families, because shares in a French société civile immobilière (SCI, the family property company so many British buyers were advised to create) count as French property in proportion to the French buildings in the company’s assets once the deceased, alone or with close family, held more than half the rights. Putting the Dordogne house into an SCI never moved it out of France for succession purposes.

The 1963 treaty uses the same territorial anchor. The official commentary of the French tax administration explains that under the Convention of 21 June 1963 the elimination of double taxation on estates of persons domiciled in France or in the United Kingdom, whatever their nationality, works through situs rules fixing each asset to one country and through a credit granted by the domicile country: double taxation on estates of persons domiciled in France or in the United Kingdom, whatever their nationality, is removed partly through rules fixing the situs of the inherited property and partly through a credit granted by the domicile country, as set out in the official BOFiP commentary on the Franco-British succession treaty. For buildings the situs rule could not be clearer: buildings are deemed situated where they stand, meaning the French house is deemed situated where it stands, and the commentary adds that for civil property companies the relevant place is where the buildings operated under the company purpose are situated. So the French house, the barn attached to it, and the SCI shares that represent them are French-situated property, taxable in France first, and the only question is how much credit the other country gives, not whether France taxes at all.

Three practical consequences follow. First, the English grant of probate does not settle the French house. The French notaire opens a French file, draws up the acte de notoriété (the notarial deed identifying the heirs and their shares), and registers the transfer in the French land register, whatever the English executor has done in Kent. Second, an English will is perfectly usable in France but must pass through French formalities before it can operate on French property. Article 1000 of the Civil Code (Code civil) provides that « Les testaments faits en pays étranger ne pourront être exécutés sur les biens situés en France qu’après avoir été enregistrés », and Article 655 of the General Tax Code repeats the registration requirement through the tax office. The Court of Cassation confirmed this architecture for the modern European succession certificate in a published ruling: Court of Cassation, First Civil Chamber, 13 April 2022, No 20-23.530 holds that « le certificat successoral européen avait une efficacité probatoire mais ne constituait pas un titre exécutoire » and that « le règlement excluait de son domaine matériel les questions fiscales et administratives », so the French registration formality for a foreign will stands. In plain terms, the European certificate proves who inherits but does not replace the French tax filings. Third, the civil law governing who gets what is a different question from the tax, and it is answered in our companion analysis of English wills and French forced heirship, which your notaire will read alongside this tax treatment: British Will, French House After Brexit: Choosing English Law, Keeping Your Children Protected, and Challenging a Blocked Succession. Tax follows situs; ownership follows the applicable succession law; the two analyses run side by side and neither replaces the other.

A short historical warning helps British families understand why older advice sounds different. Before the European Succession Regulation applied to deaths from 17 August 2015, France split successions: movables followed the law of the last domicile, immovables followed the law of their location, so French houses always carried French forced heirship whatever the will said. The Court of Cassation, First Civil Chamber, 4 July 2018, No 17-16.515, published in the Bulletin, applied that old scission system and held the foreign will enforceable on French immovables only within the limits of the French disposable share. That world ended for recent deaths. Since 17 August 2015 a single law governs the whole succession under Regulation (EU) No 650/2012 of 4 July 2012, which France applies to British nationals as third-country nationals: the law of the State of the deceased’s habitual residence at death governs the succession as a whole, while a person may elect the law of the State of nationality, held either when making the choice or at death, to govern the whole succession, as the official text of Regulation (EU) No 650/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 July 2012 provides. A British owner habitually resident in France who elected English law in the will therefore transmits under English law, but the French tax analysed in this article applies regardless of that election, because the Regulation never governed tax. Keep the two tracks separate and the file stays coherent.

B. Domicile decides who taxes everything else and who grants the credit

Once the French house is secured to French tax, domicile decides the remainder. Domicile here has two layers that families constantly confuse: each country’s domestic definition, and the treaty tie-breaker that allocates the credit. On the French side, Article 4 B of the General Tax Code treats as fiscally domiciled in France persons who have there « leur foyer ou le lieu de leur séjour principal », meaning their household or principal place of stay. A British retiree living year-round with a spouse in the Dordogne is French-domiciled for succession duty; a second-home owner visiting six weeks a year and keeping home, family life and centre of interests in Kent is not. The British side uses its own domicile concept for inheritance tax, built on origin and choice, under which a British-born owner often remains UK-domiciled despite years in France unless a domicile of choice in France is affirmatively acquired. The two definitions can point in opposite directions, and that mismatch is precisely what the treaty exists to neutralise.

French domestic scope follows domicile in three branches under Article 750 ter of the General Tax Code. Where the deceased was French-domiciled, France taxes worldwide movable and immovable property: « Les biens meubles et immeubles situés en France ou hors de France » are caught. Where the deceased was not French-domiciled, France taxes only French-situated property, including the indirect holdings described above. Where the heir, rather than the deceased, is French-domiciled and has been so for at least six of the last ten years, France can tax worldwide property received by that heir, a trap for children who returned to France while their parents stayed in Kent. Each branch must be tested in order on your facts, because the wrong branch produces the wrong return, and the treaty credit only relieves what the treaty covers.

The treaty then allocates the double charge. The non-domicile country may tax property situated on its territory under the situs rules together with other property taxable under its domestic law that the domicile country does not tax, while the domicile country must grant a credit on property situated in the other country that enters both tax bases. The BOFiP commentary states the credit mechanism in these terms: where a State taxes, on the death of a person domiciled in its territory, property deemed situated in the other State under Article 4 of the treaty, it credits against the tax computed on that property under its own domestic law, capped at that tax, an amount equal to the duty levied by the other State on the same property, as explained in the official BOFiP commentary. Take the standard case: the father dies domiciled in England owning a French house worth 400,000 euros and English assets besides. France taxes the house under Article 750 ter; the United Kingdom taxes the worldwide estate including the house, at 40% above its threshold, because, in the official British words, British inheritance tax runs at a standard 40% rate charged only on the part of the estate above the threshold, with no tax where the estate sits below the £325,000 threshold, as the official GOV.UK inheritance tax guide explains. The United Kingdom, as the domicile country, then credits the French duty paid on the house against the British tax on that house, capped at the British tax attributable to it. The family pays the higher of the two charges on the house, never the sum. Reverse the domicile, with the father habitually resident and French-domiciled in the Dordogne: France taxes the worldwide estate, England taxes nothing on the French house beyond its own domestic reach, and France credits the British tax on any property the treaty situates in Britain. The mirror works because the credit always runs from the domicile country toward the tax levied by the situs country.

Two boundary points complete the map. Debts and liabilities evidenced at death reduce the net share each heir receives, so an outstanding French mortgage on the house lowers the taxable base before the scale applies, and the treaty situs rules allocate debts between the countries so the same loan is not deducted twice. And nationality changes nothing in this allocation: the treaty covers persons domiciled in either country whatever their passport, so a British-only family and a dual-national family face identical situs and credit rules, with domicile alone doing the work. When the notaire asks where the deceased really lived, how many nights were spent where, where the spouse and daily life were anchored, and where the heir has lived for the last ten years, these are not curiosity questions. They select the applicable branch of Article 750 ter, identify the domicile country for the Article 6 credit, and determine which return must carry the form 2740 claim described below.

II. How the French succession is filed, taxed and challenged

A. The notaire, the six or twelve-month deadline and the French computation

The French succession runs through the notaire, and it runs on a clock that starts at death. The return must be filed « De six mois, à compter du jour du décès, lorsque celui dont on recueille la succession est décédé en France métropolitaine; D’une année, dans tous les autres cas », under Article 641 of the General Tax Code. A father dying in a Kent hospital gives the heirs twelve months; a mother dying in the French house gives six. The official public-service guide confirms the same rhythm for families: the return must be filed within six months of death for a death in France and within twelve months where the death occurred abroad, as the official service-public succession declaration page explains. Missing the deadline triggers late interest and penalties that no treaty credit will reimburse, so the first instruction to any British family is to mandate the notaire within weeks, have the English will translated by a sworn translator, register it as Articles 1000 and 655 require, and let the notaire value the French property at its open-market price on the day of death. Small estates can be excused from filing below very low thresholds, but a French house always exceeds them, so assume a full return is due.

The French computation on the house follows four steps that the notaire performs heir by heir. First, the net share: the market value of the French property comprised in each heir’s entitlement, less the proved debts attached to it, principally the remaining mortgage capital. Second, the allowances (abattements, the fixed sums subtracted before the rate scale applies). Each child deducts 100,000 euros on the share received from each parent, since « il est effectué un abattement de 100 000 € sur la part de chacun des ascendants et sur la part de chacun des enfants vivants ou représentés par suite de prédécès ou de renonciation » under Article 779 of the General Tax Code. The surviving spouse (conjoint survivant) and the partner under a registered civil partnership (PACS, pacte civil de solidarité) pay nothing at all, because « Sont exonérés de droits de mutation par décès le conjoint survivant et le partenaire lié au défunt par un pacte civil de solidarité » under Article 796-0 bis of the General Tax Code. This is the single most valuable planning fact for British couples in France: a house passing to the surviving spouse bears no French succession duty, while the same house passing to two children bears duty on each share above 100,000 euros. Third, the rate scale (barème). In the direct line between parents and children, Article 777 of the General Tax Code taxes each net share after allowance from 5% on the first slice up to 45% beyond 1,805,677 euros, with intermediate bands at 10, 15, 20, 30 and 40%. Siblings, nephews and unrelated beneficiaries face far harsher scales reaching 55 and 60%, which is why the identity of each heir matters as much as the value of the house. Fourth, the treaty credit in the domicile country, claimed on the dedicated form: heirs of a person domiciled in France seeking credit for British tax complete the special printed form 2740 in duplicate, while the mirror claim before HMRC attaches the French assessment and the treaty reference, with every treaty document visibly endorsed with the reference to the Convention of 21 June 1963 between France and Great Britain on succession duties as the BOFiP practice requires. The family that files the French return without preparing the British credit claim in parallel loses months and sometimes the relief itself.

The civil-law backdrop must be settled in the same file, because the notaire cannot compute shares before knowing who owns what. French law reserves part of the estate to certain heirs: Article 912 of the Civil Code defines that « La réserve héréditaire est la part des biens et droits successoraux dont la loi assure la dévolution libre de charges à certains héritiers dits réservataires, s’ils sont appelés à la succession et s’ils l’acceptent », and Article 913 of the Civil Code fixes the protected fractions at one half with one child, one third with two children and one quarter with three or more. Whether English law chosen in the will displaces these fractions for the French house depends on the applicable-law analysis developed in our companion piece, to which the notaire should be referred rather than relitigated from zero: British Will, French House After Brexit: Choosing English Law, Keeping Your Children Protected, and Challenging a Blocked Succession. For the tax computation, the lesson is narrower and purely mechanical: compute duty on the shares as the civil analysis defines them, because a share reallocated by the forced heirship rules carries its duty with it. A will that disinherits a child may still produce a tax bill in that child’s hands once the reserved portion is restored, and the notaire must model both outcomes before the return is signed.

B. Claiming the treaty credit and challenging a wrong bill

Most double-tax suffering in these files comes not from the treaty but from procedure: the credit is never automatic, it must be claimed, proved and sometimes fought for in both countries. On the French side, where the deceased was French-domiciled and British tax was levied on property the treaty situates in Britain, the heirs claim imputation of the British tax against the French duty by completing form 2740 in duplicate and joining proof of the British assessment and payment, within the French filing and claim deadlines. The administration then verifies the return, and the BOFiP practice directs prompt control of the declaration so later claims are handled on a correct base. Where the deceased was British-domiciled, the mirror claim goes to HMRC against the British tax on the French house, attaching the French avis d’imposition (the tax assessment notice), the notaire’s valuation, evidence of payment, and the treaty articles. File both claims before limitation expires, keep every assessment, receipt and translation, and never assume one administration will inform the other: the official BOFiP commentary organises administrative assistance between the two revenue authorities, but the taxpayer’s own filed claim is what preserves the right.

When the French assessment is wrong, and British files go wrong in recurring ways, the remedy ladder is standard but time-limited. Recurring errors include taxing the worldwide estate of a Kent-domiciled father instead of only the French house, refusing the spouse exemption for a British civil partner whose status was never evidenced, valuing the house at a Paris-agency estimate instead of the local market, forgetting the mortgage deduction, or applying the 60% unrelated-person scale to a stepchild treated as a stranger. The first step is the friendly claim (réclamation contentieuse, the written challenge addressed to the tax office that issued the notice), attaching the death certificate, the will with sworn translation, proof of the deceased’s domicile, the mortgage statement, the marriage or partnership certificate, and the treaty articles with the BOFiP references. Many situs and allowance errors are corrected at this stage once domicile evidence is complete. If the office maintains the charge, the heirs appeal to the administrative court (tribunal administratif, the court hearing tax disputes) of the place of the tax office within the deadline stated on the rejection, pleading Articles 641, 750 ter, 777, 779 and 796-0 bis with the Court of Cassation authorities above. Where both countries maintain incompatible claims on the same property contrary to the treaty, the mutual-agreement procedure between the two tax authorities is available, and the file should expressly invoke the treaty so the case is routed to the competent-authority channel rather than left as two parallel domestic disputes. Never let a wrong assessment become final through inaction: French limitation periods reward the heir who files early and punish the one who waits for the next anniversary to mention the problem.

Two final cautions close the circle. Life assurance (assurance-vie, the savings contract whose payout follows its own beneficiary and levy rules outside the succession scale) must be inventoried separately, because its proceeds do not join the house in the declaration but follow their own regime that the notaire and the insurer settle in parallel. And joint ownership structures chosen years ago for a holiday home, cross-wills, tontine clauses (clause de tontine, the survivorship provision sometimes inserted in the purchase deed) and SCI arrangements, all change who is deemed to receive what at death and therefore who is taxed; no file should be computed from the land register alone without rereading the purchase deed, the SCI articles and the will together. Measure each asset against its situs rule before the return is signed, claim the Article 6 credit expressly in the domicile country, file the friendly claim at the first wrong notice, and the system works as designed. Where the file is already tangled across two tax administrations, an adviser who pleads these exact texts is the difference between paying twice and paying right.

Conclusion

The map is now complete enough to act on. The French house is always taxable in France under Article 750 ter, wherever the British owner lived and whatever the English will says, while domicile decides who taxes the rest and who grants the Article 6 treaty credit that prevents the same walls being taxed twice in full. The French return runs on a six-month clock for a death in metropolitan France and twelve months otherwise, the surviving spouse pays nothing, each child deducts 100,000 euros before a 5 to 45% scale, and the foreign will must be registered before it can operate on French property. Prepare the domicile evidence, the valuation, the mortgage proof and the treaty claim in the same movement as the French filing, challenge the first wrong notice without delay, and the succession closes at the higher of the two national charges rather than their sum.

Need a quick opinion on your case

Our firm offers a telephone consultation within 48 hours with a lawyer of the firm to review your French house succession, your 1963 treaty credit, your filing deadline or your French reassessment. First telephone consultation: 80 EUR including VAT. Call 06 46 60 58 22, or write via our contact page with the date and place of death, the will, the French property address, the mortgage statement and the French assessment you wish to challenge.