Moving to France does not, by itself, end every United Kingdom Inheritance Tax (IHT) question. Since 6 April 2025, the United Kingdom has used a long-term UK residence test for the worldwide reach of IHT, while the France–UK succession convention of 21 June 1963 continues to use treaty concepts such as domicile and the location of assets. A British citizen who has lived in France for many years can therefore face two different analyses: the domestic UK question of whether the estate is within the worldwide IHT charge, and the treaty question of which country may tax particular assets and how double taxation is relieved.
The practical risk is not limited to a second home in England. A UK bank account, shares in a British company, a pension death benefit, a life policy, a trust interest or a debt owed by a UK person may all require classification. France may also tax the worldwide estate when the deceased had their French tax residence there, subject to the treaty and the French rules on an heir’s residence. The answer depends on the deceased’s residence history, treaty domicile, family and economic ties, asset situs, ownership documents and the date of death. Nationality is only one fact among many.
This article explains how the post-Brexit UK long-term residence test interacts with French inheritance tax, the 1963 convention, UK and French filing duties, treaty credit and the evidence an executor should preserve. It is aimed at a British reader living in France or administering an estate connected with France. It does not deal with buying French property, creating a company or selecting a pension product. Its purpose is to identify the tax map before a deadline, a bank release or a notarial signature makes the error expensive to correct.
I. Does a British resident in France still face UK Inheritance Tax?
A. How does the post-2025 long-term UK residence test work?
The first step is to separate three expressions that are often used as if they were interchangeable: UK tax residence, French tax residence and domicile for the purposes of an inheritance treaty. They are not automatically the same. UK IHT now asks whether the deceased was a long-term UK resident under the statutory test. France begins with its own tax-residence rules. The 1963 convention then applies its own domicile and situs provisions to decide how the two taxes interact.
HM Revenue & Customs explains the post-2025 position in its official guidance on Inheritance Tax for a long-term UK resident. From 6 April 2025, the former domicile and deemed-domicile approach was replaced for the worldwide charge by a residence-based rule. In broad terms, a person is long-term UK resident if they have been UK tax resident for at least 10 consecutive years immediately before the relevant period, or for at least 10 of the 20 tax years before it. The exact statutory operation, transitional provisions and treatment of the years after departure must be checked against the death date.
The rule has an exit tail. A person who has built up the required UK residence history may remain within the worldwide IHT rules for a period after leaving the United Kingdom. The official guidance states that this tail can last up to 10 years, depending on the residence history. A British owner who moved to France in 2024 therefore cannot assume that a French address removes UK exposure in 2026. Conversely, a person who left the United Kingdom decades ago may have a different result, particularly if they do not satisfy the 10-year test.
“Tax resident” here is a technical UK expression. It is not a synonym for having a British passport, holding a British driving licence or keeping a UK bank account. It is also not proved by one document. The executor should obtain the deceased’s UK self-assessment records, HMRC residence correspondence, P60s or equivalent employment records, travel-day information and evidence of the date on which the person moved their home and family life to France. A residence calendar prepared after death is weaker than records created during the relevant years.
The official GOV.UK guidance for a person living outside the United Kingdom who dies explains the narrower position where the deceased was not long-term UK resident. In that situation, IHT generally focuses on assets situated in the United Kingdom, subject to the statutory rules for the asset and any applicable treaty. A house or flat in England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland is the obvious example. UK-situs rules can also apply to other rights, and the classification of a share, debt, policy or trust interest should never be inferred from the bank or platform where the document is held.
A French residence certificate is useful, but it does not answer the UK long-term residence question. It may prove how France treats the individual for income tax or a treaty, while HMRC separately counts UK tax-resident years. The two files should be kept together but labelled separately. A letter saying “resident in France” does not establish the number of UK-resident years, and a UK tax return does not automatically establish treaty domicile in the United Kingdom.
There is also a difference between ordinary residence and a treaty tie-breaker. A person can be resident under the domestic laws of both states in the same year. Article 4 of the modern France–UK income-tax convention may assign treaty residence by considering a permanent home, closer personal and economic relations, habitual abode and other factors. That income-tax result can be relevant evidence, but it does not mechanically replace the 1963 succession convention’s domicile analysis or the UK IHT long-term residence test.
The executor should prepare a residence timeline with at least these entries:
- the date the deceased left the United Kingdom and the date the French home became the main home;
- each UK tax year for which HMRC treated the deceased as resident, including split-year treatment where relevant;
- the location of the spouse, partner, dependent children and principal personal possessions;
- employment, business, directorship and pension activity in both countries;
- the location of the deceased’s banking, investments, medical arrangements and regular social life;
- any French or UK residence certificate, treaty clearance, HMRC correspondence or prior tax enquiry; and
- the death date, because a change of law can apply by reference to that date rather than the date on which the return is filed.
This file is more valuable than a general statement that the deceased “had been in France for years”. It allows the adviser and executor to test the 10-year calculation, the post-departure tail and the treaty position independently. It also makes it possible to explain why a UK asset is taxable without claiming that the entire estate is necessarily exposed to UK IHT.
Finally, do not treat the phrase “domicile” in an old will or bank form as a conclusive tax answer. A will may use domicile in the civil-law or conflict-of-laws sense. The 1963 succession convention gives domicile a treaty function. UK domestic IHT after 2025 uses long-term UK residence for the worldwide rule. These conclusions can point in different directions. The file should state which definition is being applied each time the word appears.
B. Which UK and French assets enter the calculation?
Once residence and domicile have been mapped, prepare an asset register. It should show the legal owner, beneficial owner, value at the death date, location under the relevant rule, supporting document and potential relief. A British resident in France may have a French home, a UK rental property, current accounts in both countries, ISAs, investment portfolios, private company shares, pensions, insurance policies, loans to family members and an interest in a trust. Each line can have a different tax treatment.
UK real property is usually the easiest line to identify. The address, title, mortgage and market value should be recorded, together with any joint ownership, life interest or trust arrangement. A UK bank account is not necessarily treated like a house, but it is still a UK connection that must be classified. Shares in a company are normally analysed by reference to the company’s incorporation or governing law under the relevant situs rule, not simply by reference to the broker’s French or British office. The French tax administration’s commentary on the France–UK succession convention explains that company shares, fixed-income securities, debts and other rights can have different convention locations.
Pension arrangements need particular care. A pension may pass outside the ordinary estate under a nomination or scheme rule, yet a death benefit can still raise an IHT question under the relevant UK legislation. The provider’s “expression of wish”, scheme booklet, nomination form, beneficiary decision and payment statement should be collected. Do not label every pension “outside the estate” merely because the deceased did not own a conventional bank account containing the value. Equally, do not add the full value automatically without checking the scheme rules and the death-benefit event.
Trusts require the same discipline. An interest in a UK trust may be treated differently from an outright account or shareholding, and the date of the charge can depend on the trust’s terms and the transfer being analysed. In Cour de cassation, Commercial Chamber, 18 November 2020, no. 18-14.242, the Court stated that “le fait générateur des droits de mutation à titre gratuit est constitué par le transfert de propriété”. The decision concerned assets placed in a trust and the timing of a distribution; its short principle is a warning against using the date of the settlor’s death as an automatic answer for every trust. The trust deed, governing law, distribution history and beneficiary rights must be read together.
French assets enter the French analysis under the current Article 750 ter of the French General Tax Code. The article begins: “Sont soumis aux droits de mutation à titre gratuit”. In English, gratuitous transfers at death and by gift are brought within the French transfer-tax rules in the situations the article lists. If the deceased had their French tax domicile, the domestic rule can reach movable and immovable property in France and abroad, subject to an international convention. If the deceased was not French-resident, French-situs property remains the central French connection. A French-resident heir who has been resident for at least six of the previous ten years can also bring inherited foreign assets into the French tax base, again subject to the treaty.
“French tax domicile” is not decided by nationality. Article 4 B of the General Tax Code identifies factors including the household or principal place of stay, professional activity and the centre of economic interests. Its opening wording is “Sont considérées comme ayant leur domicile fiscal en France”. The phrase means that a person can be treated as French tax-resident when the statutory indicators point to France, even though they remain British and retain assets, income and family history in the United Kingdom. A treaty may then alter the result, so the domestic analysis and treaty analysis should be written separately.
The French file should identify debts and prior gifts as well as assets. Article 784 of the General Tax Code governs the aggregation of certain prior gifts over the applicable period. A British parent who made a transfer before moving to France, or who funded a French property through a family arrangement, should provide the deeds, bank evidence and tax returns. The question is not only whether a document is called a gift in England; it is how the transfer is characterised under the applicable French and treaty rules.
Spousal and descendant rights also require a civil-law map. Article 913 of the Civil Code contains the French rules on the reserved share for certain descendants. A British will can select an applicable succession law in some circumstances, but that does not automatically determine the tax base or remove a French filing. The civil question “who inherits and under which law?” must be placed next to the tax question “which state taxes which asset?” A will that works for the distribution of a French house may still leave an IHT report and a French declaration to be completed.
There are four common errors in the asset register:
- counting only the assets shown in the UK probate papers and omitting French property or a French account;
- treating a UK pension death benefit as automatically excluded, or automatically included, without obtaining the scheme documents;
- using the bank branch or broker address as the situs of shares, debts or securities; and
- assuming that the treaty provides an exemption before checking whether both countries tax the same asset and whether a credit is available.
For a British family, the cleanest register has two columns of conclusions. The first says what UK domestic law appears to include. The second says what French domestic law appears to include. A third column then applies the 1963 convention and records the relief mechanism. This format prevents a French inclusion under Article 750 ter from being mistaken for a final French liability when the convention requires a reduction, and prevents a UK inclusion from being treated as a second full charge when treaty credit may be due.
II. How do France and the United Kingdom prevent double inheritance tax?
A. How does the 1963 France–UK succession convention allocate tax?
The governing succession instrument is the Convention between France and the United Kingdom on inheritance taxes, signed at Paris on 21 June 1963. It is an older convention, but it remains central to estates involving the two countries. It covers French inheritance tax and the UK estate-duty family of taxes, together with similar taxes introduced later. Brexit did not turn it into a general exemption or replace it with the modern income-tax treaty.
The convention first asks where the deceased was domiciled at death and then applies rules for the location of particular assets. The French administration explains in its BOFiP commentary that double-tax relief is organised through both the asset-location provisions in Articles 3 to 5 and the credit mechanism in Articles 6 and 7. The same commentary states that the state of domicile taxes under its own law, while the other state can tax assets treated as located in its territory by the convention, with relief to prevent a second unreduced charge.
For a deceased who was domiciled in France, the convention does not simply remove UK IHT from every UK asset. A UK house or other asset that the convention treats as situated in the United Kingdom can remain within the UK tax claim. France may still calculate French inheritance tax under its domestic rules, including the worldwide base where Article 750 ter applies. The state of French domicile then gives a reduction or credit for UK tax on the same treaty-located assets, subject to the ceiling that the credit cannot exceed the French tax attributable to those assets.
The BOFiP states this in practical terms for a person domiciled in France: UK company shares can remain in the French calculation under Article 750 ter, while the UK tax can be imputed under Article 6 of the convention if the conditions are met. It also records the five-year time limit for requesting the reduction or reimbursement and refers to Form 2740 for claiming UK tax against French death-transfer duties. This is why a French declaration should not be abandoned merely because HMRC has already issued an IHT calculation.
For a deceased who was domiciled in the United Kingdom, the pattern reverses. France can tax property and rights treated as situated in France, such as French real estate and certain French business or company interests. The United Kingdom may tax the worldwide estate under its domestic rules if the person was a long-term UK resident or under the UK rules applicable to the asset and residence history. The relief mechanism then has to be claimed in the state that gives the convention credit. The answer depends on the precise asset and on which country’s domestic charge was calculated first.
The convention’s asset-situs rules are more detailed than the simple question “where is the bank account?” Real property follows the land. Tangible movable property normally follows its physical location at death. Certain debts, insurance rights, public securities and intellectual property follow specific rules. Shares in capital companies are generally connected to the place where the company was constituted, while partnership interests can be connected to where the business is mainly operated. The estate register must therefore describe the legal nature of each asset before applying the location rule.
Relief is not always a cash refund on the date the first tax is paid. The GOV.UK guidance on IHT double-taxation relief explains that, for many treaties, the credit is limited to the lower of the foreign tax and the UK IHT attributable to the same property. It also warns that the historic France treaty has different rules from more recent treaties. This is a reason to read the 1963 convention and the French BOFiP guidance together, rather than applying a generic UK credit calculation designed for another country.
HMRC’s inheritance-tax manual gives the executor a further practical reference. Its page on the France convention and a deceased whose fiscal domicile was France explains that the United Kingdom can waive tax on assets treated as situated in France under the convention, while UK IHT remains due on the assets allocated to the United Kingdom. The manual also refers to evidence of the French declaration and a French certificate of payment or clearance. The relevant guidance is IHTM27174. The executor should confirm the current document names and procedure with HMRC, but the underlying lesson is stable: relief requires proof of the foreign tax position, not just a statement that the deceased lived abroad.
A simple example shows why the order matters. Suppose a British person died while living permanently in France. The estate contains a French home worth €600,000, a London flat worth £450,000 and UK shares worth £200,000. HMRC’s long-term residence test, the treaty domicile analysis and the asset-situs rules may not produce the same map. The UK may assess the London flat and shares; France may start from a worldwide domestic base; and the 1963 convention may require France to give relief for UK tax on assets treated as situated in Great Britain. The figures cannot be calculated responsibly until ownership, liabilities, residence history, values and the applicable treaty domicile are proved.
If the foreign tax is higher than the domestic tax attributable to the same asset, the excess does not automatically become a general credit against tax on another asset. Article 784 A of the French General Tax Code expresses the French domestic credit principle for foreign death or gift tax in the cases covered by Article 750 ter, subject to its limits. The 1963 convention can modify the route and calculation. The claim should identify the asset, both tax computations, the payment date and the statutory or treaty ceiling.
Article 7 of the convention matters even where the substantive allocation is clear. The French administration’s commentary states that a request for a reduction or reimbursement must generally be made within five years from the death, or from a later date when the tax became due. The executor should diary that period separately from the six- or twelve-month French declaration deadline and from any UK IHT appeal or repayment deadline. Missing one does not necessarily extend the others.
The distinction between tax domicile and civil succession law has also appeared in the French courts. In Cour de cassation, First Civil Chamber, 18 May 2022, no. 20-20.609, the Court examined an international succession involving a spouse, English domicile questions and a trust-related arrangement. The decision should not be read as a substitute for the tax convention. It illustrates why the civil-law determination of the succession and the fiscal determination of IHT must be documented as separate legal questions. A British will, an English grant and a French tax return can each be valid parts of the same estate without answering the same issue.
B. What should the executor and heirs file, prove and challenge?
The executor should treat the estate as one cross-border file with two filing calendars. In the United Kingdom, the personal representative must determine whether an IHT account is required, report the estate to HMRC, pay any tax required before the grant where applicable and keep evidence for the grant and later account. The official GOV.UK inheritance-tax overview links the current forms and payment instructions. A complex estate involving a French home, a long-term residence issue, a trust, a pension death benefit or a treaty credit should not be reduced to a nil-return assumption before the asset register is complete.
In France, the formal document is a déclaration de succession, meaning the French inheritance-tax and estate declaration. Article 800 of the General Tax Code states that heirs, legatees and beneficiaries must submit a detailed declaration in the circumstances defined by the Code. The statutory wording begins: “Les héritiers, légataires ou donataires sont tenus de souscrire une déclaration détaillée”. The fact that UK IHT has already been paid does not by itself remove the French filing question. The declaration should disclose the treaty analysis and claim the appropriate relief rather than leaving the asset out without explanation.
The French tax administration states that the succession declaration is normally due within six months when the death occurred in France and within twelve months when the deceased died abroad, subject to the applicable rules and exceptions. Its official guidance is available on whether a succession declaration must be filed. A non-resident or international estate may have to deal with the Service des impôts des particuliers non-résidents, or SIP-NR, the French tax office for non-residents. The current payment and filing contact route is set out on impots.gouv.fr’s page for succession duties involving a non-resident.
For a UK executor, the documentary bundle should include the death certificate, the will and any codicil, the UK grant or administration document, proof of identity and address, the family and beneficiary documents, title documents, bank and investment statements, pension and insurance papers, trust deeds, debts, prior gifts and valuations. Where a document is issued in the United Kingdom, ask the French notary whether a certified copy, apostille and sworn translation are required for the particular act. The existing guide on a UK executor and a French inheritance after Brexit addresses the notarial document problem. A refusal to accept a document should be requested in writing with the missing legal or technical requirement identified.
The file should then contain a short treaty memorandum. It should answer, in order:
- Where was the deceased resident under UK domestic law in the relevant years?
- Does the post-2025 long-term UK residence rule or its departure tail apply?
- Where was the deceased’s treaty domicile under the 1963 convention at death?
- What does France include under Article 750 ter?
- What does the United Kingdom include under its domestic IHT rules?
- Where is each asset situated under the convention?
- Which state grants the credit or reduction for each item of overlapping tax?
- What form, certificate, payment receipt and deadline prove the claim?
The treaty memorandum is not an academic exercise. It protects the executor against three recurring filing mistakes. First, the executor may report only the French home in France because the UK tax has already been dealt with, even though Article 750 ter requires a worldwide base or a treaty disclosure. Second, the executor may report the entire worldwide estate in both returns without allocating the credit asset by asset. Third, the executor may claim a credit in the wrong country, use the wrong treaty, or miss the five-year period for a French reduction or reimbursement.
For a claim against French tax, the official French commentary refers to Form 2740 in duplicate when UK tax has been paid on assets and the deceased was domiciled in France. The form should be matched to the current notice and the evidence requested by the SIP-NR. The file should contain the UK assessment, proof of payment, calculation showing the UK tax attributable to the treaty asset, the French declaration, the French tax calculation and the exchange-rate method. The existing article on Form 2740-SD for British residents explains the correction and credit issue in more detail. A form without the supporting allocation may not demonstrate that the same property was taxed twice.
Challenge the tax bill when the error is concrete. Examples include the wrong UK residence year, a failure to apply the departure tail correctly, an incorrect company-share classification, a duplicated pension death benefit, an overstated French property value, a debt omitted from the French computation, an invalid assumption that a trust distribution occurred at death, or a treaty credit applied to the wrong asset. A challenge should state the requested correction, the legal basis, the factual evidence and the amount in dispute. It should not merely repeat that the deceased was British or that the family had moved to France.
Do not confuse a tax correction with a civil inheritance dispute. If an heir challenges the validity of a will, the reserved share or the powers of an executor, that may change who receives the property. It does not automatically pause a tax deadline. Article 720 of the Civil Code states: “Les successions s’ouvrent par la mort, au dernier domicile du défunt”. Article 724 adds that heirs designated by law are seized by operation of law. These civil rules help explain why the estate is opened, but they do not replace the tax return, the treaty calculation or the payment request.
The same care applies to donations and family advances. If the deceased paid for a child’s French home, transferred shares before moving, or placed money into a trust, the executor should identify the date, recipient, legal instrument and reporting history. Article 784 is relevant to the French fiscal aggregation of prior gifts, while UK IHT has its own rules for lifetime transfers and the residence history of the transferor. A transaction that was lawful in the United Kingdom can still require French disclosure, and an entry in a French return can still require a UK analysis.
When the two tax offices disagree, ask for the disagreement to be reduced to a table. The table should show the asset, value, country one, country two, domestic legal basis, treaty article, tax paid, credit limit and remaining dispute. This is more effective than exchanging general letters about “double taxation”. It also shows whether the problem is a residence question, a valuation question, a situs question, a classification question or a missing-credit question. Each category has different evidence and different appeal routes.
Keep the two currencies visible. UK IHT calculations may be in pounds sterling, while French declarations and the Form 2740 analysis use euros. Record the valuation date, the exchange rate, the source and any rounding. A credit can be reduced by a conversion error even when the underlying treaty position is correct. The estate should retain both the original sterling calculation and the translated French schedule, with the arithmetic reproducible by another person.
Finally, diary the deadlines as a sequence, not a single date: the death date, UK account and payment dates, the French six- or twelve-month declaration date, the date a foreign tax was actually paid, the five-year treaty relief date and any administrative appeal deadline. The executor should also record when the notary, HMRC and the French tax office were sent each document. If one office asks for a further certificate, the request and response should be saved. Cross-border tax relief is often lost through missing proof and timing rather than through an impossible legal principle.
Conclusion
A British resident in France may still be within the UK Inheritance Tax net after Brexit, but the answer cannot be reached from nationality or a French address alone. The post-6 April 2025 long-term UK residence test, the departure tail, French tax residence, the deceased’s treaty domicile and the location of each asset must be analysed in the correct order. France and the United Kingdom may both include an asset under their domestic rules, while the 1963 succession convention allocates the taxing right or supplies a limited credit. That relief must be claimed with the right declaration, evidence, certificate and deadline.
The safest working file has a residence timeline, an asset register, a treaty memorandum, both tax calculations and a calendar of every filing and relief period. It also keeps civil succession questions separate from tax questions. A French notary, a UK executor and the beneficiaries should be able to see which document proves each conclusion and which authority is being asked to correct or reduce the bill.
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