Your parents bought a stone house in the Dordogne twenty years ago, spent every summer there, and never got round to asking what would happen to it when they died. Now one of them has died, the notaire (the French public officer who settles successions) has written to you about a déclaration de succession (the French inheritance tax return), and the numbers look alarming. This guide explains, step by step, how France taxes British heirs who inherit a French house after Brexit: which assets the French tax net catches even when the deceased lived in England, the tax-free allowances each heir receives, the exact rate scale, the six and twelve-month filing deadlines, and what to do if the tax office reassesses the value of the house. Every decisive statement is linked to its official text so you can verify it yourself, and every French legal term is explained the first time it appears. Part I sets out what France taxes and how much it takes, with a worked example for two children inheriting a house. Part II explains how the succession is settled in practice, which law governs the estate, and how to challenge a tax bill you believe is wrong.

I. What France Taxes When British Heirs Inherit a French House

A. Which Assets France Catches: French House Taxed Even If the Deceased Lived in England

The starting point surprises many British families: France does not need the deceased to have lived in France to tax the French house. Article 750 ter of the French General Tax Code (Code général des impôts) draws a simple territorial line. It provides that “Sont soumis aux droits de mutation à titre gratuit : 1° Les biens meubles et immeubles situés en France ou hors de France, […] lorsque le donateur ou le défunt a son domicile fiscal en France au sens de l’article 4 B ; 2° Les biens meubles et immeubles, […] situés en France, […] lorsque le donateur ou le défunt n’a pas son domicile fiscal en France au sens de l’article précité.” In plain terms, if the deceased was fiscally domiciled in France, France taxes worldwide assets; if the deceased was domiciled in England, France still taxes the assets situated in France, and the French house is the textbook example. The same article extends the net to houses held indirectly, for instance through a property company, where the deceased held more than half the shares, so placing the house in a company does not by itself move it outside French tax.

Two consequences follow for a British family. First, the fact that the deceased paid income tax in the United Kingdom, held only a British passport, and visited the house two months a year changes nothing: the bricks in France are taxable in France. Second, the United Kingdom may tax the same house at the same time if the deceased was domiciled in the United Kingdom for British inheritance tax purposes, because British inheritance tax reaches worldwide assets. There is no modern comprehensive double tax treaty for estates between the two countries. Britain’s own tax guidance notes that the estate-tax arrangements with France date from the pre-1975 Estate Duty era and work differently from modern treaties (HMRC guidance on inheritance-tax double taxation relief) Where each country taxes the same asset, the same guidance explains that tax paid abroad on locally situated assets can be credited against the British bill, capped at the British tax on that asset In practice, then, the French tax on the French house is normally payable first and credited against the British bill, but the credit is capped at the British tax on that asset, so you must compute the French liability precisely rather than assume one return covers both countries.

One common situation escapes French tax entirely: a surviving husband, wife, or civil partner pays nothing. Article 796-0 bis of the General Tax Code provides that “Sont exonérés de droits de mutation par décès le conjoint survivant et le partenaire lié au défunt par un pacte civil de solidarité.” The surviving spouse (conjoint survivant) and the partner bound by a pacte civil de solidarité (PACS, the French registered civil partnership) are fully exempt from French death duties. This matters enormously for British couples: a married couple, and a couple who registered a PACS in France, transmit the French house between themselves free of French succession tax. An unmarried partner with no PACS, by contrast, is treated as a non-relative and taxed at 60 percent after a small allowance, as Part I.B explains. If you are reading this before a death has occurred, the single most valuable step a British couple owning a French house can take is to check their marital status in French eyes and, where appropriate, formalise it.

Children, parents, siblings, and other relatives each have their own allowance and rate, and the tax is computed separately for each heir on that heir’s net share, after deducting that heir’s share of the deceased’s debts. It is never computed as one lump sum on the whole estate. That per-heir logic is what makes the allowances so important, and it is where British expectations, shaped by a single nil-rate band, most often go wrong.

B. Allowances and Rates: The 100,000-Euro Allowance per Child and the 5 to 45 Percent Scale

Each child of the deceased receives a personal tax-free allowance (abattement) of 100,000 euros on the share inherited from each parent. Article 779 of the General Tax Code states that “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.” The allowance applies per parent and per child, so two children inheriting from their widowed mother each deduct 100,000 euros, and a child who later inherits from the second parent receives a fresh allowance on that second succession. Grandchildren who inherit by representation of a predeceased parent share that parent’s allowance between them. The same article grants an allowance of 15,932 euros to each brother or sister, 7,967 euros to each nephew or niece, and 159,325 euros to any heir unable to work normally because of a physical or mental infirmity. Ascendants, meaning the parents of the deceased, receive the same 100,000-euro allowance as children.

After the allowance, the taxable share is sliced into bands taxed at rising rates. Article 777 of the General Tax Code sets the scale for the direct line (parents, children, and further direct descendants) as follows: 5 percent up to 8,072 euros, 10 percent from 8,072 to 12,109 euros, 15 percent from 12,109 to 15,932 euros, 20 percent from 15,932 to 552,324 euros, 30 percent from 552,324 to 902,838 euros, 40 percent from 902,838 to 1,805,677 euros, and 45 percent above that figure. The full table is published at article 777 of the General Tax Code. Siblings pay 35 percent up to 24,430 euros and 45 percent above; relatives up to the fourth degree pay 55 percent; more distant relatives and non-relatives, including an unmarried partner with no PACS, pay 60 percent. Spouses and PACS partners, as noted, are exempt and never reach the scale.

A worked example makes the mechanics concrete. Suppose a widowed British mother, fiscally domiciled in England, dies leaving a French house worth 400,000 euros and no debts, with two children. Each child’s share is 200,000 euros. Each deducts the 100,000-euro allowance, leaving 100,000 euros taxable. Applying the direct-line scale: 5 percent on the first 8,072 euros gives about 404 euros; 10 percent on the slice from 8,072 to 12,109 euros gives about 404 euros; 15 percent on the slice from 12,109 to 15,932 euros gives about 573 euros; and 20 percent on the remaining 84,068 euros gives about 16,814 euros. Each child therefore pays roughly 18,194 euros of French succession tax, and the family pays about 36,388 euros in total. If the same house were worth 700,000 euros, each 350,000-euro share would leave 250,000 euros taxable and each child would pay roughly 48,194 euros. The lesson is that the allowance shelters the first 100,000 euros per child, but the 20 percent band reaches most French houses quickly, so valuation disputes with the tax office, discussed in Part II, are worth real money.

Three further points complete the picture. First, debts are deductible: the outstanding mortgage on the French house, the notaire’s settlement costs attributable to the succession, and other debts of the deceased reduce the net share before allowances apply, so gather the paperwork early. Second, lifetime gifts from the same donor are added back to the succession for the computation of tax within fifteen years, which means a British parent who gave money to a child a decade ago cannot assume the allowance starts untouched. Third, life assurance (assurance-vie) follows its own regime and normally sits outside the succession entirely, but only within limits, as Part II.A explains with the controlling decision of the Court of Cassation.

II. Settling the Succession and Challenging the Tax Bill

A. Deadlines, the Notaire, and Which Law Governs the Estate

French law imposes strict filing deadlines that run from the date of death, not from the date you learn about the inheritance. Article 641 of the General Tax Code provides that “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.” The official public-service guidance restates the same two tracks in its guidance on the succession return: : six months for a death in metropolitan France, twelve months for a death abroad. For a British parent who dies in England leaving a French house, the heirs therefore have one year. Missing the deadline is expensive: the same official page warns of interest at 0.20 percent per month, hence 2.4 percent a year, plus a 10 percent surcharge from the thirteenth month, whether the deadline was six months or a year, Interest therefore compounds monthly, so diary the deadline the week you learn of the death and instruct a notaire immediately.

The notaire is the pivot of the whole process. The notaire draws up the acte de notoriété, the official deed identifying the heirs and their shares, which the public-service guidance on the succession return describes as the deed by which the notaire identifies the heirs and their respective shares where gross estate assets exceed 5,965 euros The notaire values the house, prepares the déclaration de succession, computes the tax, and files it with the tax office responsible for registration (service de l’enregistrement). British heirs should give the notaire three things as early as possible: the death certificate with a sworn translation (traduction assermentée, a translation certified by a court-approved translator), the English grant of probate or will with its apostille where required, and evidence of every debt deductible from the estate. Heirs are not obliged to accept: French law allows acceptance pure and simple, acceptance up to the net assets (acceptation à concurrence de l’actif net, which caps liability for the deceased’s debts at the value inherited), or renunciation. Where the French house carries a large mortgage or the deceased left unknown debts, the capped acceptance deserves serious discussion with the notaire before any unconditional step is taken, because taking possession of estate assets or cashing estate funds can amount to tacit acceptance.

Before the tax computation comes a prior question: which country’s succession law decides who inherits what. Since 17 August 2015, France applies the European Succession Regulation (Regulation (EU) No 650/2012) to cross-border estates. Its default rule is habitual residence: the law of the State where the deceased was habitually resident at the time of death. A British retiree habitually resident in France therefore dies under French succession law by default, including the forced heirship rules described below. But the Regulation offers an escape hatch that matters enormously to British families: the law of the State of his or her nationality, chosen either when the will is made or held at death. A British national can therefore choose English law in the will, and that choice binds the French notaire and the French courts for the estate as a whole. The detailed mechanics of making that choice, and of protecting children while doing so, are set out in our companion guide to choosing English law for a French house in your will, which also explains the reserved-share rules that survive such a choice.

Two decisions of the Court of Cassation (Cour de cassation, France’s supreme court for civil matters) show why the cross-border analysis must be done carefully. In a 2018 ruling on an estate with houses in both France and Spain, the Court recalled that “lorsqu’une succession comporte des immeubles situés dans l’un et l’autre de deux pays dont le défunt a la nationalité, le renvoi opéré par la loi du lieu de situation de l’immeuble impose que le critère de rattachement à la loi nationale du défunt soit apprécié selon les règles de conflit de lois prévues par la loi du pays renvoyant” (Cass. civ. 1re, 15 May 2018, No 17-11.571). In plain terms, where two countries’ laws point at each other, the answer is found by reading the foreign conflicts rule as the foreign courts read it, not by assuming one’s own nationality decides everything. And in a 2021 ruling on a dispute between heirs and the donee of a French house, the Court held that “l’action en réduction exercée par les héritiers réservataires contre le donataire d’un immeuble, qui ne tend pas à la restitution en nature de l’immeuble mais au paiement d’une indemnité de réduction et présente, dès lors, un caractère mobilier, relève de la compétence des tribunaux du pays où le défunt avait son dernier domicile” (Cass. civ. 1re, 14 April 2021, No 19-24.773). The action en réduction is the claim by which forced heirs claw back gifts that exceed the disposable share; because it seeks money rather than the house itself, it belongs before the courts of the deceased’s last domicile. For British families this means the country where the deceased actually lived can determine where the fiercest succession fights are heard, whatever the will says.

Life assurance deserves its own paragraph because British families often hold large assurance-vie contracts alongside the house. The capital paid to a named beneficiary on death sits outside the succession and outside the forced-heirship clawback, unless the premiums were manifestly excessive in light of the policyholder’s means. Article L. 132-13 of the Insurance Code (Code des assurances) provides that “Le capital ou la rente payables au décès du contractant à un bénéficiaire déterminé ne sont soumis ni aux règles du rapport à succession, ni à celles de la réduction pour atteinte à la réserve des héritiers du contractant. Ces règles ne s’appliquent pas non plus aux sommes versées par le contractant à titre de primes, à moins que celles-ci n’aient été manifestement exagérées eu égard à ses facultés.” The Court of Cassation applies this text strictly in both directions. It has confirmed that “Ce texte ne s’applique pas aux primes versées sur un contrat d’assurance sur la vie racheté par son souscripteur” (Cass. civ. 1re, 9 February 2022, No 20-18.544), and in the same decision it upheld a ruling that a 160,000-euro payment was not manifestly excessive after the appeal court had weighed the subscriber’s age, financial and family situation, and the usefulness of the transaction to him. The lesson for British heirs is symmetrical: a disappointed child cannot easily force an assurance-vie payout back into the estate, but a parent who empties the estate into a policy to disinherit a child risks seeing the premiums recharacterised. Keep the subscription documents, premium notices, and evidence of means at the time of each payment.

B. Challenging the Bill: Reassessment, Forced Heirship, and What to File First

Most disputes between British heirs and the French tax office concern one figure: the market value of the house on the day of death. The tax office can check the declared value against comparable sales, land-registry data, and its own valuation tools, and it can issue a reassessment (proposition de rectification) increasing the taxable base, with interest and surcharges. The heirs’ best defence is assembled long before that letter arrives. Ask the notaire to keep the valuation file: recent sales of comparable houses in the same commune, the estate agent’s written estimate dated near the death, the energy-performance report (diagnostic de performance énergétique), and photographs and invoices documenting any dilapidation, structural defect, or planning restriction that depresses the price. A British family that can show three comparable sales below the reassessed figure negotiates from strength; a family with no file pays. Where the house was jointly owned with a surviving spouse, check how the matrimonial regime splits the value before taxing the deceased’s half, because taxing the whole house is a classic and correctable error.

If the reassessment stands, French procedure requires a written claim (réclamation contentieuse) to the tax office before any court action, setting out the facts, the legal basis, and the amount claimed, with supporting evidence attached. A claim that merely states disagreement, without comparables or legal argument, almost always fails. If the administration rejects the claim expressly or stays silent past the statutory reply period, the heirs can appeal to the administrative court (tribunal administratif) within the appeal deadline stated in the rejection notice. Interest continues to accrue while the dispute runs, so consider paying the contested amount under protest and claiming repayment with default interest if you win, rather than letting surcharges accumulate. Keep every notice, every proof of posting, and every email acknowledgment: limitation and appeal deadlines in tax litigation are strict, and a lost receipt has sunk more cases than weak valuations.

A second family of disputes pits the heirs against each other rather than against the tax office. French law reserves part of the estate for the children. Article 912 of the Civil Code (Code civil) 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. La quotité disponible est la part des biens et droits successoraux qui n’est pas réservée par la loi et dont le défunt a pu disposer librement par des libéralités.” The réserve héréditaire is the forced share; the quotité disponible is the freely disposable part. Article 913 fixes the fractions: “Les libéralités, soit par actes entre vifs, soit par testament, ne pourront excéder la moitié des biens du disposant, s’il ne laisse à son décès qu’un enfant ; le tiers, s’il laisse deux enfants ; le quart, s’il en laisse trois ou un plus grand nombre.” With one child, half the estate is reserved; with two children, two-thirds; with three or more, three-quarters. Gifts and legacies that exceed the disposable share are reduced through the action en réduction discussed in Part II.A. Since 2021, where the applicable foreign law gives children no forced-share mechanism at all, each child can levy a compensatory deduction on assets situated in France to restore the French reserved rights, within their limits. British parents who chose English law precisely to leave the French house to one child or to a new partner must therefore understand that the choice of law governs the succession but does not always neutralise every French protection, and children who feel disinherited should take advice on the reduction action quickly, because it is subject to its own limitation periods.

Practical checklist for a British heir who has just received the notaire’s letter: first, confirm the filing deadline from the date and place of death and work backwards to leave the notaire at least two months; second, assemble title deeds, the mortgage statement, bank and investment statements at the date of death, the will and probate with translations, and the valuation file; third, decide on acceptance, capped acceptance, or renunciation before handling estate assets; fourth, verify the allowance applied to each heir and the rate band on each share, using the worked example in Part I.B as a cross-check; fifth, calendar the UK reporting position with the French payment so the foreign-tax credit is claimed correctly; and sixth, if a reassessment arrives, respond on valuation evidence and file the written claim within the notice’s deadline rather than telephoning in protest. Each of these steps is cheaper taken early than repaired late.

Conclusion

A British family that inherits a French house after Brexit faces two certainties and one opportunity. The certainties are that France will tax the house even if the deceased never lived there, under article 750 ter, and that the return must be filed within a year of a death abroad, under article 641, with interest and a 10 percent surcharge for delay. The opportunity lies in the allowances: 100,000 euros per child per parent, full exemption for a surviving spouse or PACS partner, and a per-heir computation that rewards careful splitting of shares and deduction of debts. Around those certainties orbit the questions that decide real cases: which law governs the estate under the European Succession Regulation and any English-law choice in the will, whether the forced heirship rules or the compensatory levy assist a disappointed child, whether the assurance-vie payouts stay outside the estate under article L. 132-13, and whether the tax office’s valuation of the house survives comparison with genuine comparable sales. The valuations, translations, and deadline diary cannot wait; the legal analysis should follow immediately after. Handled in that order, a French house inherited from England becomes an administered succession with a predictable bill rather than a cross-border dispute.