You bought the stone farmhouse outside Sarlat in 2016, spent five summers restoring it, and this spring you finally accepted an offer. On completion day your notaire, the regulated French conveyancing lawyer who handles every property sale in France, slides a statement of account across the desk and nearly a third of your profit has vanished before the money even reaches you. There is 19 per cent income tax on the gain, another 17.2 per cent in social charges, and because your gain is a large one, a further surtax on top. Nothing was withheld when you bought, nobody wrote to warn you, and the estate agent’s estimate of your net proceeds never mentioned any of it. Then comes the second shock, the one that is specific to British sellers since Brexit: an exemption of up to 150,000 euros that your French neighbours still enjoy is closed to you, and you must appoint an accredited French tax representative for the sale while a German or Italian seller does not.

This article explains the French capital gains tax, known in France as the plus-value immobilière, as it applies to a British owner selling a house in France after Brexit. It sets out why France is entitled to tax the sale even if you live in Kent, how the bill is calculated line by line, which exemptions survive for British sellers and which one Brexit removed, and how to challenge a bill that is wrong. The figures and procedures below follow the official guidance of the French tax administration, the statute in force, and three recent court decisions that every seller should understand before signing the acte de vente, the final notarised deed of sale.

I. I am British and I am selling my house in France: will France tax the gain and at what rate?

A. Why France taxes your French house even though you live in Britain

French tax law starts from the location of the bricks, not from the nationality or residence of the owner. Article 164 B of the French General Tax Code provides: “Sont considérés comme revenus de source française : a. Les revenus d’immeubles sis en France ou de droits relatifs à ces immeubles”. A house in the Dordogne produces French-source income when it is sold, and the resulting gain, the difference between the sale price and the purchase price plus allowable costs, is taxable in France whether the seller lives in London, Edinburgh or Sydney. Your residence position under Article 4 B of the same code decides how you are taxed on your worldwide income, since “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”, but for a French property it is the situs of the building that gives France its taxing right, so even a seller who has never been French tax resident pays French tax on the sale of a French house.

The tax treaty between France and the United Kingdom confirms this division of rights and has continued to apply unchanged since Brexit. Article 13 of the convention signed on 19 June 2008 and published in France by decree provides: Article 13 of the France-United Kingdom convention of 19 June 2008, published by Decree no. 2010-20 of 7 January 2010, gives the state where the building stands the right to tax the gain on immovable property In ordinary language, the gain on a French house is taxable in France, and the gain on a British house is taxable in the United Kingdom. France therefore taxes first, and it is the United Kingdom that must relieve any double taxation, not the other way round. British sellers who are still resident in the United Kingdom must also consider the British side: You pay Capital Gains Tax when you ‘dispose of’ overseas property if you’re resident in the UK. The same official guidance adds: You may also have to pay tax in the country you made the gain. If you’re taxed twice, you may be able to claim relief. That relief is normally given in Britain as a credit for the French tax, capped at the British tax on the same gain, so a sale that is heavily taxed in France does not automatically produce a matching British refund, and a sale that produces no British gain can leave the French bill standing alone.

Three practical consequences follow from this architecture, and misunderstandings about each of them fill our files every summer. First, there is no British-style annual exempt amount in the French calculation: every euro of taxable gain above the computed allowances is charged, and the allowances depend on how long you have owned the property, not on a personal tax-free band. Second, the tax is collected at the moment of the sale itself, not the following year through a tax return. Article 244 bis A of the General Tax Code states: “L’impôt dû en application du présent article est acquitté lors de l’enregistrement de l’acte ou, à défaut d’enregistrement, dans le mois suivant la cession, sous la responsabilité d’un représentant établi en France, accrédité par l’administration fiscale.” Your notaire withholds the tax from the sale price on completion day and pays it to the Treasury with the capital gains return, so the time to check the calculation is before you sign, not after the money has moved. Third, the exchange rate matters in a way sellers rarely anticipate: the purchase price paid in sterling years ago and the sale price received in euros today must both be expressed consistently in the euro-denominated return, and the notaire will ask for the original purchase deed, the completion statement from your acquisition, and proof of any building works you claim as an addition to the purchase price, which is why assembling that file months before the sale regularly saves sellers thousands of euros.

One further distinction shapes everything that follows. A seller who still lives in the house as their main home, their résidence principale, is in a fundamentally different position from a seller whose French house is a second home, une résidence secondaire, or a rental investment. The main home is fully exempt, as explained in Part II, while the second home is fully within the charge subject only to holding-period reductions and the exemptions examined below. Sellers who moved back to Britain but kept the French house, sellers who inherited it, and sellers who never lived in it at all are all treated as sellers of a second home unless a specific exemption applies, and since Brexit one of the most valuable of those exemptions no longer applies to British nationals at all.

B. How the French bill is built: 19 per cent tax, 17.2 per cent social charges, yearly reductions and the surtax above 50,000 euros

The basic charge on a non-resident seller is simpler than its reputation suggests, because it has only two layers. Article 244 bis A of the General Tax Code, which governs gains realised by persons not domiciled in France for tax purposes, meaning “Les personnes physiques qui ne sont pas fiscalement domiciliées en France au sens de l’article 4 B”, provides that “les personnes physiques, les associés personnes physiques de sociétés, groupements ou organismes dont les bénéfices sont imposés au nom des associés et les porteurs de parts, personnes physiques, de fonds de placement immobilier mentionnés à l’article 239 nonies sont soumis au prélèvement au taux de 19 %”. The French tax administration confirms the position in its English-language guidance for non-residents: your capital gain will be subject to 19% tax, regardless of your country of residence. It will also be subject to social security contributions at the overall rate of 17.2%. A British seller therefore pays the same headline rates as a French resident seller: 19 per cent income tax, called l’impôt sur le revenu, and 17.2 per cent social charges, called les prélèvements sociaux, for a combined headline burden of 36.2 per cent on the taxable gain before any reductions.

The social charges deserve a closer look because they are the part of the bill most often miscalculated. The legal basis is a contribution on investment income set out in the Social Security Code, which states: “Les personnes physiques fiscalement domiciliées en France au sens de l’article 4 B du code général des impôts sont assujetties à une contribution sur les revenus du patrimoine assise sur le montant net retenu pour l’établissement de l’impôt sur le revenu”. For non-residents the administration applies the full 17.2 per cent, but with one important qualification that directly benefits many British sellers: persons affiliated to a compulsory social security scheme, other than French, in an EEA country (European Union, Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein) or Switzerland, are exempt from the general social contribution (CSG) and the contribution to the reimbursement of the social debt (CRDS). Although the United Kingdom left the European Union on 1 January 2021, British residents continue to benefit from this exemption from CSG and CRDS. The same page adds the necessary warning: However, such income remains subject to a solidarity levy at the rate of 7.5%. In practice a British seller who can prove affiliation to the British National Insurance system, with a certificate of coverage or equivalent evidence attached to the file, pays the 7.5 per cent solidarity levy instead of the CSG and CRDS portion of the 17.2 per cent, while a seller who cannot prove that affiliation pays the full amount. This single document is worth checking before completion, because the notaire will apply the full rate by default if the file contains no proof.

The 36.2 per cent headline rate then falls, sometimes to nothing, through reductions for length of ownership known as abattements pour durée de détention. The official service-public guidance explains the mechanism and its two different timetables: The added value is reduced by one abatement which depends on how long you have owned the property. and The plate is different for the calculation of income tax and for the calculation of social security contributions. The yearly rates are 6 per cent per year from the sixth to the twenty-first year and 4 per cent for the twenty-second year for income tax, and 1.65 per cent per year from the sixth to the twenty-first year, 1.6 per cent for the twenty-second year and 9 per cent per year beyond that for social charges. The result, stated plainly on the same official page, is that You are exempt from tax on real estate capital gains for any well held for more than 22 years for income tax purposes, while Capital gains realized on the sale of property held for more than 30 years are also exempt from social security contributions. A farmhouse bought in 2016 and sold in 2026, with ten full years of ownership, therefore benefits from a 30 per cent reduction of the taxable gain for income tax and an 8.25 per cent reduction for social charges, whereas the same farmhouse bought in 1995 and sold today would escape both layers entirely. The notaire computes these reductions from the dates shown on the two deeds, so an error of a few months in the stated date of acquisition, which happens more often than sellers expect with old rural properties, can move the gain into the wrong band.

Large gains attract one further layer, a surtax on high property gains created to tax the biggest transactions more heavily. Article 1609 nonies G of the General Tax Code states: “Il est institué une taxe sur les plus-values réalisées dans les conditions prévues aux articles 150 U et 150 UB à 150 UD par les personnes physiques ou les sociétés ou groupements qui relèvent des articles 8 à 8 ter et dans celles prévues à l’article 244 bis A par les contribuables non domiciliés fiscalement en France assujettis à l’impôt sur le revenu.” The same article sets the trigger point: “La taxe est due à raison des plus-values imposables d’un montant supérieur à 50 000 €”, with a sliding scale from 2 per cent to 6 per cent of the total taxable gain. A taxable gain of 60,000 euros bears 2 per cent, a gain of 200,000 euros bears 4 per cent, and a gain above 260,000 euros bears 6 per cent, each applied to the whole gain with a smoothing mechanism at the bottom of each band. This surtax is also withheld by the notaire on completion day, and sellers who discover it in the completion statement for the first time are usually those whose estate agent spoke only of the 19 per cent.

The paperwork that carries all of this is standardised, and knowing its names helps sellers supervise the process instead of merely signing it. The administration states: For the sale of property or property rights, form no. 2048-IMM-SD must be filled out. That return, prepared by the notaire from the file the seller provides, sets out the purchase price, the allowable additions for acquisition costs and building works, the holding-period reductions, the tax, the social charges and any surtax, and it is filed when the deed is registered. Non-resident sellers face one additional formality that residents escape: the accredited tax representative, le représentant fiscal accrédité, a professional established in France who guarantees the tax to the Treasury and who must by statute stand behind the payment, since the tax is paid, as quoted above, under the responsibility of a representative established in France and accredited by the tax administration. The administration grants automatic dispensation in three situations, of which two matter to most British sellers: For sales of €150,000 or less This upper limit is assessed for each seller. and For sales allowing for capital gains exemption both in terms of income tax and social levies owing to the duration of ownership of the property (22 years for income tax and 30 years for social levies). The third dispensation covers sellers established in the European Union or the European Economic Area, a category the United Kingdom left on 1 January 2021, which is why a British seller of a 300,000 euro farmhouse owned for ten years must pay for a representative while a Spanish seller in the same position does not. The representative may be an accredited company or any other person resident in France for tax purposes, but the administration expressly excludes the two professionals sellers instinctively turn to, since Or any other person who is resident of France for tax purposes, except notaries and lawyers. Budget several hundred to a few thousand euros for this service and appoint the representative before the compromis de vente, the preliminary sale agreement, so that the completion is never held up by an accreditation still pending.

II. Can I reduce the bill or challenge it: exemptions, the Brexit trap and how to fight an excessive assessment?

A. Which exemptions a British seller can still claim, and the one Brexit took away

The most valuable exemption in French property tax is also the simplest: the sale of the main home is entirely free of tax. Article 150 U of the General Tax Code, which defines the scope of taxable property gains as “les plus-values réalisées par les personnes physiques ou les sociétés ou groupements qui relèvent des articles 8 à 8 ter , lors de la cession à titre onéreux de biens immobiliers bâtis ou non bâtis ou de droits relatifs à ces biens, sont passibles de l’impôt sur le revenu dans les conditions prévues aux articles 150 V à 150 VH .”, immediately carves out “Qui constituent la résidence principale du cédant au jour de la cession”, meaning property that is the seller’s main home on the day of the sale. A British family that lives year-round in its house near Bordeaux and sells it to move to another French town therefore pays nothing, exactly like its French neighbours, and Brexit changed nothing about that rule. The difficulty is never the text but the proof, because the administration regularly argues that a house claimed as a main home was in reality a second home, looking at where the children go to school, where the household pays its local taxes, where the energy bills show real daily life, and how long the occupation lasted before the sale sign went up.

On that exact question the Conseil d’État, the supreme court for tax disputes, gave sellers a powerful clarification in the spring of 2025. A couple who had bought a plot of land, built a house on it, moved in as their main home and then sold the whole property a few months later had been denied the exemption by the appeal court, which held that they had never really intended to make the house their principal dwelling. The Conseil d’État, 8th chamber, 14 March 2025, no. 474943, quashed that reasoning, holding that the appeal court should only have examined how the sellers had actually occupied the property: “En statuant ainsi, alors qu’il lui revenait seulement d’apprécier les conditions dans lesquelles ils avaient occupé effectivement ce bien, la cour a commis une erreur de droit.” For British sellers this means that a short period of genuine occupation, proved by tax notices, utility contracts, removal invoices, school registrations and neighbours’ statements, can support the exemption even where the purchase always looked like a development project, while a long period of merely symbolic occupation, with the real family life remaining in Surrey, cannot. Sellers who genuinely moved into the French house before selling should therefore build the occupation file from the first day, and sellers whose French house was always a holiday home should not claim an exemption that an audit would dismantle with penalties attached.

A second exemption helps sellers who left France but sell quickly afterwards. Article 244 bis A provides that a non-resident who sells the house that was their main home in France when they transferred their tax residence abroad can be fully exempt, on “la double condition que la cession soit réalisée au plus tard le 31 décembre de l’année suivant celle du transfert par le cédant de son domicile fiscal hors de France et que l’immeuble n’ait pas été mis à la disposition de tiers, à titre gratuit ou onéreux, entre ce transfert et la cession”. The tax administration explains that the non-resident transferor has had free disposal (no free or paid disposal) of his former main residence located in France between the departure from France and the transfer and that the transfer must be made no later than 31 December of the year following the year in which the transferor transfers his tax residence outside France. A British executive posted to Lyon who buys a flat, lives in it as the family home, is then transferred back to Manchester and sells the flat eight months later pays no French capital gains tax, provided the flat was never let or lent in the meantime. The two conditions are cumulative and strictly applied: a sale completed in January of the second year after departure fails the deadline, and a house let to holiday tenants for a single summer between departure and sale fails the free-disposal condition. Where the conditions are met, the administration adds a useful procedural consequence: If they are met, the exemption from capital gains tax exempts the non-resident seller from filing a capital gains tax return. The deed of sale must therefore mention the basis for the exemption.

The third exemption is the one Brexit removed, and it is the trap that now catches British sellers who read outdated English-language guides. Article 150 U grants non-resident sellers an exemption of up to 150,000 euros of net taxable gain, but only “lorsque le cédant est une personne physique, non résidente de France, ressortissante d’un Etat membre de l’Union européenne ou d’un autre Etat partie à l’accord sur l’Espace économique européen”, and only “dans la limite d’une résidence par contribuable et de 150 000 € de plus-value nette imposable”. A British citizen who has not also kept the nationality of a European Union or European Economic Area state is no longer within that definition, so a retired couple from Yorkshire selling a second home in the Lot with a 120,000 euro gain pays full tax where an otherwise identical Dutch couple pays nothing. The same British couple should also note the boundary carefully: the exemption is capped per seller, so a jointly owned house sold by two spouses can shelter up to 300,000 euros of gain between them where the sellers qualify, and the ten-year window and free-disposal conditions attached to the provision reward sellers who held the property personally before leaving France. None of this helps a British-only national today, which is precisely why the purchase price file, the works invoices and the holding-period calculation matter more for British sellers than for almost any other nationality: with the 150,000 euro shelter gone, every euro added to the documented acquisition cost and every year of ownership directly reduces a bill that can no longer be wished away.

The fourth route to zero tax needs no nationality condition at all, only patience: full exemption through length of ownership, with total exemption from income tax after twenty-two years and from social charges after thirty years, as set out in Part I. Families who bought in the nineteen-nineties and sell today should verify the acquisition date on the original deed before assuming anything, because notaires occasionally transcribe old dates incorrectly and because building plots later extended by additional parcels can carry several starting dates. Where the thirty-year threshold is met for the whole property, the dispensation from appointing a tax representative described above also applies, so the oldest British-owned houses in France can be the cheapest to sell as well as the most profitable.

B. How to challenge an excessive bill: checking the notaire’s figures, the complaint to the tax office and the court

Because the tax is withheld on completion day, the first challenge happens before anything is paid, at the desk of the notaire. Ask for the draft 2048-IMM return at least two weeks before completion and verify five lines the way an auditor would: the sale price against the compromis, the purchase price against the original acquisition deed, the acquisition costs and works claimed as additions, where each invoice must show work done by a professional on the property itself rather than furniture or routine maintenance, the holding-period reductions with their two different timetables for tax and social charges, and the surtax threshold where the taxable gain exceeds 50,000 euros. The most frequent errors we correct are missing works invoices that the seller paid in cash years ago and never filed, a purchase price taken from a transfer declaration instead of the notarised deed, and a holding period counted from the compromis rather than the acte de vente. Each of these is invisible once the return is filed and the money is gone, and each is straightforward to fix while the file is still on the notaire’s desk.

Where the dispute concerns the rate itself rather than the calculation, history is on the seller’s side, and a 2022 decision of the Conseil d’État explains why. Before the law was harmonised, non-residents outside the European Union paid 33.33 per cent while residents and European Union sellers paid 19 per cent, and a Swiss national resident in Monaco challenged the difference as a restriction on the free movement of capital. The Conseil d’État, 9th chamber, 23 June 2022, no. 445785, recalled that “toutes les restrictions aux mouvements de capitaux entre les Etats membres et entre les Etats membres et les pays tiers sont interdites”, and approved the appeal court for holding that “le droit de l’Union européenne faisait seulement obstacle à un prélèvement excédant le taux de 19 % applicable, en vertu des dispositions de l’article 200 B du code général des impôts, aux plus-values de même nature réalisées par les résidents de France, de l’Union européenne et des autres Etats parties à l’accord sur l’EEE ayant conclu avec la France une convention d’assistance administrative en vue de lutter contre la fraude et l’évasion fiscales”, adding that “En statuant ainsi, la cour n’a entaché son arrêt d’aucune erreur de droit.” Parliament has since aligned the individual rate at 19 per cent for all countries of residence, which is why the administration can now state that the gain is taxed at 19 per cent regardless of the country of residence. British sellers therefore need not fear the old 33.33 per cent rate, but the decision remains the authority to cite whenever a local office applies a differential treatment to a third-country national that exceeds what a comparable resident would bear.

A parallel line of defence concerns the social charges, and here the highest civil court spoke as recently as September 2025. The Court of Cassation, 2nd civil chamber, 25 September 2025, no. 22-24.634, published in the Bulletin, recalled the single-legislation principle that governs all European social security coordination: “la personne à laquelle les règlements s’appliquent n’est soumise qu’à la législation d’un seul État membre, en sorte que celle-ci, affiliée à un régime de sécurité sociale d’un État membre, ne doit pas contribuer au régime de sécurité sociale d’un autre État membre (CJUE, arrêt du 26 février 2015, De Ruyter, C-623-13, point 35)”. The practical translation for a British seller is the CSG and CRDS exemption described in Part I: a person affiliated to a compulsory British scheme should not fund the French scheme twice on the same gain, and the file should contain the affiliation evidence from the start. Sellers who paid the full 17.2 per cent because the notaire applied the default rate without that evidence can seek recovery of the CSG and CRDS portion afterwards through the complaint procedure below, although doing it before completion is faster, cheaper and far less uncertain.

Where money has already been withheld or an assessment has arrived that the seller considers wrong, French law imposes a mandatory first step before any court action: a formal complaint to the tax office, called the réclamation contentieuse. The Book of Tax Procedures states: “Le contribuable qui désire contester tout ou partie d’un impôt qui le concerne doit d’abord adresser une réclamation au service territorial, selon le cas, de la direction générale des finances publiques ou de la direction générale des douanes et droits indirects dont dépend le lieu de l’imposition.” For a house sale that service is the tax office of the place where the property is situated, and the complaint must identify the tax, the year, the amount disputed and the legal grounds, article by article, with the deeds, the 2048 return, the affiliation certificate and the computation attached. The same code opens the courts to complaints seeking “soit la réparation d’erreurs commises dans l’assiette ou le calcul des impositions, soit le bénéfice d’un droit résultant d’une disposition législative ou réglementaire”, which covers both a miscalculation by the notaire and a wrongly refused exemption.

Deadlines are strict and unforgiving, so calendar them on the day of completion. The rule is that “Pour être recevables, les réclamations relatives aux impôts autres que les impôts directs locaux et les taxes annexes à ces impôts, doivent être présentées à l’administration au plus tard le 31 décembre de la deuxième année suivant celle” of the collection or payment event challenged. A sale completed in June 2026 with tax withheld the same day must therefore be challenged by 31 December 2028 at the latest, but waiting is never advisable: file within months through the secure messaging system of the personal space on impots.gouv.fr as well as by recorded delivery where the amount justifies it, ask expressly for discharge of the disputed portion, called the dégrèvement, and keep proof of every sending. If the administration rejects the complaint expressly or stays silent for six months, the dispute moves to the administrative court, le tribunal administratif, of the place of taxation, where the same file, organised article by article from the start, becomes the court bundle. Readers facing a wider enquiry into their French affairs should also read our companion guides on tax audits of British residents in France, on declaring British rental income in France and on taxing British dividends in France, which apply the same method of treaty first, return second, complaint third to neighbouring problems.

Conclusion

A British owner selling a house in France faces a clear chain of questions, and each has a clear answer. France taxes the gain because the building stands on French soil, and the treaty with the United Kingdom confirms that France taxes first while Britain relieves double taxation by credit. The bill combines 19 per cent income tax with 17.2 per cent social charges, softened by yearly reductions that erase the tax after twenty-two years and the charges after thirty, by a National Insurance affiliation that removes the CSG and CRDS but leaves a 7.5 per cent solidarity levy, and by a surtax that bites only where the taxable gain exceeds 50,000 euros. The main home is exempt where genuine occupation is proved, the house that was a main home just before departure is exempt where it is sold by 31 December of the following year without ever being lent or let, and the 150,000 euro shelter that other European sellers still enjoy is closed to British-only nationals since Brexit. The notaire withholds the tax on completion day through the 2048 return under the guarantee of an accredited representative, so the calculation must be checked before signing. Where the bill is wrong, the formal complaint to the local tax office, filed in time and reasoned article by article, reopens the file, and the administrative court decides if the administration maintains its position. Prepared in that order, with deeds, invoices and affiliation proof assembled months ahead, a French house sale remains a profitable transaction even after the French Treasury has taken its lawful share.

Need a quick opinion on your case.

Our office offers a telephone consultation within 48 hours with a lawyer of the firm, to review your deeds, your works invoices, your residence position and your draft 2048 return before you sign or before you challenge an assessment. Call +33 6 46 60 58 22 or write through our contact page with your latest French tax notice and your British affiliation evidence, and we will tell you which route costs you less.