Your father dies in Manchester. You have lived in Lyon for nine years. Within days, two legal machines start moving without waiting for you. In England, the bank freezes his accounts, the house cannot be sold, and nobody can touch the portfolio until a grant of probate is issued. In France, a twelve-month clock starts running toward a detailed tax return that covers not only what sits in England but, in many cases, everything you receive wherever it sits. Each country taxes first and asks questions later, and the treaty that prevents you paying twice only works if you claim it in the right form, at the right office, with the right proof. This guide follows the order in which a British resident of France actually meets the problem: whether France can tax English assets at all, which court and which law govern the estate, what has to be filed and when, how the Franco-British treaty credit is obtained in practice, and how to challenge double taxation, late penalties or a file that the other side refuses to release.

A few terms need fixing before anything else, because every official letter you receive will use them. The droits de mutation à titre gratuit are the French transfer duties on inheritances and gifts. A notaire is a French public officer who settles estates and draws up the authentic instruments banks require. The déclaration de succession is the detailed estate return filed with the French tax office. A mise en demeure is a formal demand to file that starts the thirty-day grace period before heavier penalties apply. A grant of probate is the English court document that gives the executor the legal right to deal with the estate. Keep these five in mind; the rest of this guide turns on them.

I. Which country taxes what when you live in France and someone dies in England?

A. Does France really tax an English house, English savings and English shares?

The short answer alarms most readers, so it should come first: yes, in the common case France taxes the English assets as well as any French ones. Article 750 ter of the General Tax Code provides that “Sont soumis aux droits de mutation à titre gratuit : 1° Les biens meubles et immeubles situés en France ou hors de France” (moveable and immoveable property situated in France or outside France is subject to transfer duties) “lorsque le donateur ou le défunt a son domicile fiscal en France au sens de l’article 4 B” (where the donor or the deceased had their tax domicile in France within the meaning of Article 4 B). If the person who died lived in France, the whole worldwide estate falls inside the French return, including the semi-detached house in Leeds, the Halifax savings and the ISA portfolio. The same article adds a third case that catches many British families the other way round: “Les biens meubles et immeubles situés en France ou hors de France” received by “l’héritier, le donataire, le légataire ou le bénéficiaire d’un trust défini au même article 792-0 bis qui a son domicile fiscal en France au sens de l’article 4 B” are taxable in France, with one time limit that matters enormously: “cette disposition ne s’applique que lorsque l’héritier, le donataire ou le bénéficiaire d’un trust a eu son domicile fiscal en France pendant au moins six années au cours des dix dernières années précédant celle au cours de laquelle il reçoit les biens” (this provision applies only where the heir, donee or trust beneficiary has had their tax domicile in France for at least six years during the ten years before the year in which they receive the property). In plain terms, if you have lived in France for six of the last ten years and your mother dies in England leaving you her house, France taxes your inheritance even though neither she nor the house ever touched France.

Tax domicile itself is wider than most British readers expect. Article 4 B of the General Tax Code treats as domiciled in France “1. Sont considérées comme ayant leur domicile fiscal en France au sens de l’article 4 A : a. Les personnes qui ont en France leur foyer ou le lieu de leur séjour principal ; b. Celles qui exercent en France une activité professionnelle, salariée ou non, à moins qu’elles ne justifient que cette activité y est exercée à titre accessoire” (persons who have their household or principal place of residence in France, and persons who carry on a professional activity in France, employed or not, unless they show that activity is merely secondary). Your foyer, the household, is where your family life is centred; your séjour principal, the principal stay, is where you spend most of the year. Meeting either test is enough. A British retiree who spends eight months a year in the Dordogne, or a British employee working full time in Paris with weekends in Kent, is French tax domiciled for succession purposes even while keeping a British passport and a UK bank account. The consequence is mechanical: the worldwide return applies, and the treaty discussed in Part II decides how much of the bill France keeps.

What France then charges depends on who you were to the person who died. Article 779 of the General Tax Code grants that “Pour la perception des droits de mutation à titre gratuit, 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” (for the collection of transfer duties, an allowance of 100,000 euros applies to the share of each parent and to the share of each living child, or child represented following predecease or renunciation). Each child therefore receives 100,000 euros clear of French duty before the scale bites. Article 777 of the General Tax Code then provides that “Les droits de mutation à titre gratuit sont fixés aux taux indiqués dans les tableaux ci-après, pour la part nette revenant à chaque ayant droit” (transfer duties are set at the rates shown in the tables below, on the net share of each beneficiary), with the direct-line table running from 5 per cent on the first slice to 45 per cent above 1,805,677 euros. Between brothers and sisters the rates are 35 and 45 per cent after a small allowance; between unrelated people the rate is 60 per cent. Take a worked example. Your widowed mother dies in Bristol leaving you, her only child, a house worth 420,000 euros and savings of 80,000 euros. The French taxable share is 500,000 euros, less the 100,000-euro allowance, leaving 400,000 euros taxed on the progressive scale at roughly 78,000 euros before any treaty credit. That figure shocks readers who assumed that English assets stay in England. The treaty credit in Part II exists precisely to reduce it, but the starting point is full French taxation and the burden of claiming relief sits on you.

Britain, meanwhile, runs its own charge on the same death. The UK government states that The standard Inheritance Tax rate is 40%. It’s only charged on the part of your estate that’s above the threshold, and that no tax is due where the value of your estate is below the £325,000 threshold or you leave everything above the £325,000 threshold to your spouse, civil partner, a charity or a community amateur sports club (Inheritance Tax on GOV.UK). In the Bristol example the estate of 500,000 euros, roughly £430,000, exceeds the £325,000 nil-rate band, so about £105,000 bears 40 per cent, close to £42,000, before reliefs such as the residence nil-rate band that a detailed valuation may add. Gifts made in the years before death can also be pulled back into the British charge, with taper relief reducing the rate according to how long before death the gift was made. Two treasuries therefore tax the same house in the same year under opposite logics: France because the heir lives in France, Britain because the house stands in Britain. Paying both in full and hoping one side refunds you spontaneously is the single most expensive mistake in this whole area. The treaty mechanism below is the only organised exit.

B. Which court decides, which law applies, and what must be filed within six or twelve months?

Before any tax is computed, three practical questions decide everything else: who is legally entitled, in which country the succession is opened, and which court can rule if the family disagrees. French civil law starts from a blunt rule. Article 720 of the Civil Code states that “Les successions s’ouvrent par la mort, au dernier domicile du défunt” (successions open upon death, at the last domicile of the deceased). Where the deceased last lived therefore points to the law and the authorities of first resort. For cross-border estates inside Europe, the EU Succession Regulation of 4 July 2012 organises jurisdiction around the same idea: the courts of the Member State where the deceased had their habitual residence at death decide the succession as a whole. The Court of Cassation has given this rule its full weight. In its judgment of 29 May 2019, No. 18-13.383, the First Civil Chamber held that “sont compétentes pour statuer sur l’ensemble d’une succession les juridictions de l’État membre dans lequel le défunt avait sa résidence habituelle au moment de son décès” (the courts of the Member State in which the deceased had their habitual residence at the time of death have jurisdiction to rule on the succession as a whole), adding that “l’autorité chargée de la succession doit procéder à une évaluation d’ensemble des circonstances de la vie du défunt au cours des années précédant son décès et au moment de son décès, prenant en compte tous les éléments de fait pertinents, notamment la durée et la régularité de la présence du défunt dans l’État concerné ainsi que les conditions et les raisons de cette présence” (the authority dealing with the succession must carry out an overall assessment of the circumstances of the deceased’s life in the years before death and at the time of death, taking into account all relevant facts, in particular the duration and regularity of presence in the State concerned and the conditions and reasons for that presence) (Cass. 1re civ., 29 May 2019, No. 18-13.383). Where the deceased split life between countries, nationality and the location of the main assets can tip the assessment. For a British reader this means the French court of the deceased’s last French home will normally take charge of the whole file, while an English court keeps control of the English land formalities, and the two systems cooperate rather than compete.

One complication deserves attention because it now arises in almost every British family file: the deceased lived in England, so no Member State court has habitual-residence jurisdiction, yet French heirs ask a French court to act because assets or nationality connect the estate to France. The Court of Cassation faced exactly that configuration and, on 18 November 2020 in case No. 19-15.438, chose to ask Luxembourg first, ruling: “Les dispositions de l’article 10, point 1a), du règlement (UE) n° 650/2012 du Parlement européen et du Conseil du 4 juillet 2012, relatif à la compétence, la loi applicable, la reconnaissance et l’exécution des décisions, et l’acceptation et l’exécution des actes authentiques en matière de successions et à la création d’un certificat successoral européen doivent-elles être interprétées en ce sens que, lorsque la résidence habituelle du défunt au moment du décès n’est pas située dans un Etat membre, la juridiction d’un Etat membre dans lequel la résidence habituelle du défunt n’était pas fixée mais qui constate que celui-ci avait la nationalité de cet Etat et y possédait des biens doit, d’office, relever sa compétence subsidiaire prévue par ce texte?” (Must Article 10(1)(a) of Regulation (EU) No 650/2012 be interpreted as meaning that, where the deceased’s habitual residence at death was not in a Member State, the court of a Member State in which habitual residence was not fixed but which finds that the deceased had that State’s nationality and owned property there must, of its own motion, take up the subsidiary jurisdiction provided for by that provision?), and ordering a stay pending the answer (Cass. 1re civ., 18 Nov. 2020, No. 19-15.438). The lesson for British heirs is concrete: even when the deceased died domiciled in England, a French court can still be seised on a subsidiary basis, for example to appoint an administrator (mandataire successoral, the court-appointed estate manager) or to settle the French tax and civil consequences, and the question of who decides what should be raised early rather than discovered after conflicting decisions.

On the ground, two paper chains run in parallel and each side refuses the other’s documents until they are translated into its own formalities. On the English side, the GOV.UK guidance explains that Probate is the legal right to deal with someone’s property, money and possessions (their ‘estate’) when they die, warns that You should not make any financial plans or put property on the market until you’ve got probate, and requires the family to clarify the Inheritance Tax position first: Before applying for probate, you must find out if you need to pay Inheritance Tax (applying for probate on GOV.UK). Until the grant issues, the English bank will not release the balance to a French-resident heir and the Land Registry will not register a transfer. On the French side, heir status is proved by the acte de notoriété, the notarial certificate of heirship: article 730-1 of the Civil Code provides that “La preuve de la qualité d’héritier peut résulter d’un acte de notoriété dressé par un notaire, à la demande d’un ou plusieurs ayants droit” (proof of heirship may result from a certificate drawn up by a notary at the request of one or more beneficiaries). The French notaire draws up this certificate from death certificates, birth certificates and any will, then uses it to unblock French accounts, and a European Certificate of Succession can carry the same proof across borders for the English assets. In practice the family solicitor in England obtains probate while the notaire in France draws up the acte de notoriété, and each sends certified copies to the other. Starting both tracks in the first month saves the file from the most common deadlock, which is each office waiting for the other to move first.

Both tracks are then squeezed by the French filing deadline, which many British families discover too late. Article 641 of the General Tax Code sets the time limits bluntly: “Les délais pour l’enregistrement des déclarations que les héritiers, donataires ou légataires ont à souscrire des biens à eux échus ou transmis par décès sont : 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” (returns of property devolving by death must be registered within six months from death where the deceased died in metropolitan France, and within one year in all other cases). A death in England therefore gives twelve months, not six, but the year includes obtaining probate, valuing the English house, converting pounds to euros at the death-date rate and getting the treaty proof from HMRC, each of which can take months. Article 800 of the General Tax Code adds that “Les héritiers, légataires ou donataires, leurs tuteurs ou curateurs, sont tenus de souscrire une déclaration détaillée” (heirs, legatees and donees, their guardians and curators, must file a detailed return), with only narrow exemptions: “Les ayants cause en ligne directe, le conjoint survivant et le partenaire lié par un pacte civil de solidarité lorsque l’actif brut successoral est inférieur à 50 000 €” (direct-line heirs, the surviving spouse and the civil partner where the gross estate is below 50,000 euros, and no prior unregistered gift was received) and other beneficiaries below 3,000 euros. Almost every Anglo-French estate exceeds those thresholds, so the return is compulsory, the valuation date is the date of death, and the file must list the English assets in euros with the exchange evidence attached.

II. How do you pay once, prove it, and challenge the rest?

A. How does the 1963 treaty credit work and what does form 2740 change?

France and the United Kingdom signed a succession treaty on 21 June 1963 that is still the instrument which prevents the same house being taxed in full twice. The French tax administration’s official commentary explains its architecture: Selon les stipulations de la convention du 21 juin 1963, la suppression des doubles impositions relatives aux successions de personnes ayant leur domicile en France ou dans le Royaume-Uni, quelle que soit, par ailleurs, leur nationalité, résulte d’une part, des règles fixant la situation des biens héréditaires à l’égard de l’État autre que celui du domicile du de cujus (Convention, art. 3 à 5) (under the convention of 21 June 1963, the elimination of double taxation on estates of persons domiciled in France or the United Kingdom, whatever their nationality, results first from the rules fixing the treatment of inherited property vis-à-vis the State other than that of the deceased’s domicile, Articles 3 to 5 of the Convention) (BOI-INT-CVB-GBR-20-20, Convention with the United Kingdom on successions). Nationality is therefore irrelevant; domicile and the situs of each asset decide which State has the first right to tax, and the State of domicile then relieves the resulting double charge by credit. Land and buildings are taxable where they stand, so the Leeds house is taxable in Britain first, while bank accounts, shares and most moveables follow the domicile. This allocation is the mirror image of the situation where a British owner dies holding a French house, in which France taxes the French property first and Britain gives relief; readers facing that reversed configuration will find the detailed French-property-first analysis in our companion guide on who taxes the French house when a British owner dies and how the treaty credit is challenged.

The credit itself is not automatic; it is claimed on a special form and capped in a way that surprises many families. The same official commentary states: Les ayants droit de la succession (ou leur représentant) d’une personne ayant son domicile en France qui veulent obtenir l’imputation de l’impôt britannique sur les droits de mutation exigibles en France doivent remplir un imprimé spécial n°2740 en double exemplaire qu’ils peuvent se procurer auprès du service des impôts des particuliers des non résidents (SIP-NR) (beneficiaries of a person domiciled in France who seek credit of British tax against French transfer duties must complete special form No. 2740 in duplicate, available from the non-residents tax office, the SIP-NR) (BOI-INT-CVB-GBR-20-20). In practice the heir files the French déclaration de succession declaring the worldwide assets, pays or arranges the French duties, has HMRC certify the British tax on the English assets on the form, and the French office deducts the certified amount. Two limits then apply. First, only British tax on property taxable in Britain under the treaty and also taxable in France under the treaty can be credited: seul est imputable l’impôt perçu sur les biens imposables dans ce pays d’après la convention et également imposables en France d’après la même convention (only tax levied on property taxable in that country under the convention and also taxable in France under the same convention may be credited) (BOI-INT-CVB-GBR-20-20). Second, where the foreign tax was paid before the French duties, le montant reconnu imputable de cet impôt est directement déduit du montant de l’impôt français à percevoir (the recognised creditable amount being deducted directly from the French tax due), and otherwise relief comes by repayment afterwards. Return to the Bristol example: French duties of about 78,000 euros, British Inheritance Tax of about £42,000 on the house. The British tax attributable to the house, once certified on form 2740, is deducted from the French bill, leaving roughly the balance plus any French tax on the savings that Britain did not tax. The family pays once in full and once for the difference, instead of twice in full. For heirs living in Paris and the inner suburbs, the practical circuit is short: the déclaration de succession goes to the local tax office of the heir’s domicile, while form 2740 is obtained from and returned through the non-residents office, so the file should name both offices from the start and keep proof of every sending.

Two frequent variations change the computation and must be spotted before filing. The first is the lifetime gift. If the deceased gave the English house or a large sum to the heir a few years before death, France may treat the gift and the inheritance as one taxable mass through the fifteen-year reminder rule, while Britain applies its own seven-year potentially-exempt-transfer clock with taper relief. The two look-back periods do not coincide, so an asset outside British tax as an old gift can still inflate the French bill, and an asset taxed in Britain as a recent gift may have no French counterpart to credit against. The second variation is the family trust. Many English estates pass through discretionary trusts, and the Court of Cassation has fixed the French timing rule for them: “le fait générateur des droits de mutation à titre gratuit est constitué par le transfert de propriété, qui, s’agissant de biens placés dans un trust, s’opère par l’effet de la distribution de l’actif du trust au bénéficiaire final, au jour de sa clôture, laquelle peut être postérieure au décès du constituant” (the chargeable event is the transfer of ownership which, for property in a trust, occurs through distribution of the trust assets to the final beneficiary, on closure, which may be after the settlor’s death) (Cass. com., 18 Nov. 2020, No. 18-14.242). A British heir who is merely a potential beneficiary of an ongoing English trust therefore owes nothing in France yet, while the heir who receives the distribution on closure is taxed then, with the treaty credit available on any British exit charge on the same assets. Declaring a trust interest too early, or omitting a distribution that has occurred, are the two opposite errors that generate the largest reassessments in these files.

B. How do you challenge double tax, late penalties or a blocked file?

Even a careful file can produce three kinds of dispute: both treasuries taxing the same asset with no credit given, penalties for missing the twelve-month deadline, and an office on one side of the Channel refusing to release what the other side demands. Each has its own remedy, and the order in which they are used matters. Start with double taxation that survives the treaty claim. The first step is a written claim to the French tax office that assessed the duties, attaching the grant of probate, the HMRC Inheritance Tax account with proof of payment, the certified form 2740 and a schedule matching each English asset to its British tax and its French entry. Most surviving double charges come from mismatch rather than bad faith: the Leeds house valued at probate in pounds and declared in France in euros at a different date, the British tax paid by the estate as a whole rather than allocated asset by asset, or the credit refused because the asset was characterised differently on each side. A documented reallocation, with valuations aligned to the date of death and the exchange rate evidenced, resolves a large share of cases without litigation. Where the two administrations genuinely read the treaty differently, the treaty provides a mutual agreement procedure under which the French and British authorities consult each other; raising it requires showing that taxation has occurred or is threatened contrary to the convention, so the dossier must quote the treaty articles and both assessments precisely.

Next come the penalties, which turn a manageable bill into a heavy one when probate delays push filing past the year. Article 1728 of the General Tax Code provides that “Le défaut de production dans les délais prescrits d’une déclaration ou d’un acte comportant l’indication d’éléments à retenir pour l’assiette ou la liquidation de l’impôt entraîne l’application, sur le montant des droits mis à la charge du contribuable ou résultant de la déclaration ou de l’acte déposé tardivement, d’une majoration de : a. 10 % en l’absence de mise en demeure ou en cas de dépôt de la déclaration ou de l’acte dans les trente jours suivant la réception d’une mise en demeure d’avoir à le produire dans ce délai ; b. 40 % lorsque la déclaration ou l’acte n’a pas été déposé dans les trente jours suivant la réception d’une mise en demeure d’avoir à le produire dans ce délai” (failure to file within the prescribed time a return or instrument needed to assess or compute the tax triggers, on the duties charged or resulting from the late return, an increase of 10 per cent where there was no formal demand or filing occurs within thirty days of receiving one, and 40 per cent where filing does not occur within thirty days of the demand). On the Bristol figures, filing fourteen months after death without a demand adds about 7,800 euros; ignoring the demand pushes the increase toward 31,000 euros, before late interest. The defence therefore has two stages. First, never let a mise en demeure go unanswered: filing within thirty days caps the increase at 10 per cent even when the original deadline was missed. Second, if the delay came from waiting for probate or HMRC certification, say so with dated proof and request discretionary relief, because the administration distinguishes a heir who filed late but completely from one who had to be chased. Where the increase is maintained, it is challenged together with the underlying duties in the same claim, so that a reduction of the base automatically reduces the penalty computed on it.

Finally there is the blocked file, and it takes three familiar forms. The English bank refuses to release funds without the grant while the French return needs the sterling figures the bank holds; the answer is to apply for probate on estimated values, which the system allows to be corrected, rather than waiting for perfect figures while the French twelve months run out. The French notaire refuses to act because the English will looks unfamiliar; the answer is the acte de notoriété supported by the grant with a sworn translation, and where needed the European Certificate of Succession, which the notaire can issue for use in England. The family disagrees about whether the deceased lived habitually in France or England, which decides both the competent court and often the applicable law; here the 2019 test quoted above is the lever, because an overall assessment of the circumstances of the life of the deceased rewards the party who assembles the concrete evidence early: tenancy agreements and utility bills, GP and hospital records, travel and presence calendars, tax returns on each side, club and community ties, and the place where the closest family lived. Courts weigh duration and regularity of presence with its reasons, not assertions of intention alone. Assembled in the first months, that bundle simultaneously supports the jurisdiction argument, the treaty domicile position and the credibility of the whole file; assembled the week before the hearing, it supports nothing.

Conclusion

A British resident of France who inherits from England faces two systems that each claim the first word: England through probate and Inheritance Tax at 40 per cent above £325,000, France through worldwide succession duties declared within twelve months of an English death, with 100,000 euros per child sheltered and the balance taxed at 5 to 45 per cent. The 1963 treaty joins them by allocating each asset to one side and crediting the other’s tax on certified form 2740, but only the heir who files completely, values at the date of death, certifies the British payment and matches each asset to its credit pays once instead of twice. The Court of Cassation’s habitual-residence test decides which court leads, the notaire’s acte de notoriété and the English grant unlock the assets on each side, and the penalty scale punishes silence far more than lateness. Start both paper chains in the first month, file within the year even on estimates to be corrected, claim the treaty credit document by document, and challenge mismatch, penalty or blockage in writing with dated proof at each stage.