You live in Britain, you own a holiday home in France, and you are thinking of selling. Since Brexit, two questions worry every British seller: how much French tax will be taken at the notaire’s office on completion day, and whether the bill can be reduced or challenged afterwards. The answers are precise, and they are mostly favourable, provided you understand the machinery before you sign. France taxes the sale in France first. The United Kingdom taxes you again as a British resident, then gives relief for the French tax. Your holding period wipes out the income-tax slice after twenty-two years and the social-charges slice after thirty. If you are affiliated to the British social security system, you escape the heaviest French social charges altogether and pay only a 7.5% solidarity levy. And since Brexit, one formality has become compulsory for British sellers that French and European Union sellers escape: the appointment of a tax representative, the représentant fiscal, unless the sale price is modest. This guide works through the calculation, the charges, the paperwork and the remedies, with the exact legal texts and the court decisions that settled the difficult points. It focuses on the social-charges question and the sale formalities; for the general computation of the levy and the surtax, see our companion guide Selling Your French House as a British Owner After Brexit.

I. How much French capital gains tax will you pay on your French second home

A. How the 19% levy is worked out: sale price, deductible costs and years of ownership

The starting point is that France keeps the right to tax the sale. Article 14 of the France-United Kingdom double taxation convention of 19 June 2008, published in France by the France-United Kingdom tax convention presented in the French tax administration doctrine (convention of 19 June 2008, published in France by Décret n° 2010-20 of 7 January 2010), provides that gains from selling immovable property situated in a Contracting State may be taxed there. Your Dordogne cottage or Nice flat is immovable property situated in France, so France may tax the gain, and the United Kingdom must then relieve the double taxation through a foreign tax credit under Article 24 of the same convention. The British government publishes the full convention text, and HM Revenue and Customs confirms on its selling overseas property page: that UK residents pay Capital Gains Tax when they dispose of overseas property, may also have to pay tax where the gain arose, and may claim relief if taxed twice.

On the French side, the charging provision for sellers who are not French tax residents is article 244 bis A of the Code général des impôts, which states: “Sous réserve des conventions internationales, les plus-values, telles que définies aux e bis et e ter du I de l’article 164 B , réalisées par les personnes et organismes mentionnés au 2 du I lors de la cession des biens ou droits mentionnés au 3 sont soumises à un prélèvement selon les taux fixés au III bis.” The persons caught include “Les personnes physiques qui ne sont pas fiscalement domiciliées en France au sens de l’article 4 B”. Your domicile for tax purposes is tested under article 4 B of the Code général des impôts: “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”. If your home, family life and work are in Britain, you are not domiciled in France for tax purposes, and the sale of your French house falls squarely into the levy.

The rate is the good news. Paragraph III bis of article 244 bis A of the Code général des impôts provides: “Toutefois, 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 %.” A British individual seller therefore pays 19% on the taxable gain, exactly like a French resident.

That equal treatment was not always granted to sellers outside the European Union: the standard rate of the levy used to follow the corporation-tax rate of 33.33%, and only European sellers paid 19%. The Conseil d’État closed that dispute in a decision that every non-resident seller should know, CE, 9th chamber, 23 June 2022, n° 445785. A Swiss national living in Monaco had sold property in Nice in 2012 and been charged at 33.33%. The court held that the higher rate was “constitutif d’une restriction à la libre circulation des capitaux entre les Etats membres de l’Union européenne et les Etats tiers, prohibée par l’article 63 du traité sur le fonctionnement de l’Union européenne”, and that European Union law “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”. The claim for a full discharge was rejected, but the overcharge above 19% had to be repaid. For a British seller today, the statute itself grants the 19% rate, so the battle that the Swiss seller had to fight in court is already won in the text.

The taxable gain itself is the sale price minus the purchase price, with certain acquisition costs and evidenced improvement works added to the purchase price, computed under the same rules as for residents in articles 150 U to 150 VH of the Code général des impôts, whose opening article states: “Sous réserve des dispositions propres aux bénéfices industriels et commerciaux, aux bénéfices agricoles et aux bénéfices non commerciaux, 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”. Keep every invoice for structural works, every notaire’s bill and every estate-agent fee receipt: your notaire reconstructs the base from these documents, and a missing file directly increases the taxable figure.

Then comes the holding-period relief, which is often the largest saving in the whole computation. Article 150 VC of the Code général des impôts provides: “I. – La plus-value brute réalisée sur les biens ou droits mentionnés aux articles 150 U , 150 UB et 150 UC est réduite d’un abattement fixé à : – 6 % pour chaque année de détention au-delà de la cinquième ; – 4 % au titre de la vingt-deuxième année de détention.” In plain terms, from the sixth year of ownership you deduct 6% per year, plus 4% for the twenty-second year, so that after twenty-two years of ownership the income-tax slice is extinguished entirely. The tax administration’s published doctrine, BOI-RFPI-PVI-20-20, confirms that full income-tax exemption is reached after twenty-two years of ownership. A cottage bought in 2008 and sold in 2026 has been held eighteen years: thirteen years beyond the fifth, giving 78% relief, so only 22% of the gross gain remains taxable at 19%.

One more layer applies to large gains. Article 1609 nonies G of the Code général des impôts creates a surtax that expressly covers non-residents: “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.” British non-resident sellers are therefore inside the surtax, since “La taxe est due à raison des plus-values imposables d’un montant supérieur à 50 000 €, selon le barème suivant appliqué au montant total de la plus-value imposable”, running from 2% between 50,001 and 60,000 euros up to “Supérieur à 260 000 : 6 % PV”. The base is the gain after holding relief, so the relief shrinks the surtax too, and gains of 50,000 euros or less escape it completely.

A worked example makes the mechanics concrete. Suppose you bought a house near Bergerac in 2008 for 200,000 euros, spent 20,000 euros on evidenced structural works, and sell in 2026 for 520,000 euros. The gross gain is 300,000 euros. Eighteen years of ownership gives 78% income-tax relief, leaving a taxable base of 66,000 euros. The 19% levy is 12,540 euros. The surtax applies because 66,000 exceeds 50,000: the 60,001 to 100,000 band charges 2%, which is 1,320 euros. The income-tax slices total 13,860 euros before social charges, which are computed on a different scale explained below.

B. Which social charges a British seller really pays: the full 17.2% or only 7.5%

Social charges are where British sellers either lose or save the largest sum, and the answer turns entirely on where you are affiliated for social security. French law first casts the net very wide. Article L. 136-7 of the Code de la sécurité sociale provides: “I bis.-Sont également soumises à la contribution les plus-values imposées au prélèvement mentionné à l’article 244 bis A du code général des impôts lorsqu’elles sont réalisées, directement ou indirectement, par des personnes physiques.” Your gain as a British individual is therefore in principle subject to French social charges on top of the 19% levy. The full package at the general rate is 17.2%, as the tax administration’s own worked examples apply: a taxable social base multiplied by 17.2%.

But Article L. 136-7 of the Code de la sécurité sociale immediately carves out people who belong to another country’s social security system: “I ter.-Par dérogation aux I et I bis, ne sont pas redevables de la contribution les personnes qui, par application des dispositions du règlement (CE) n° 883/2004 du Parlement européen et du Conseil du 29 avril 2004 sur la coordination des systèmes de sécurité sociale, relèvent en matière d’assurance maladie d’une législation soumise à ces dispositions et qui ne sont pas à la charge d’un régime obligatoire de sécurité sociale français.” This is the statutory expression of the single-legislation principle: you pay social charges in one country only. The Cour de cassation restated it forcefully in Cass., 2nd civil chamber, 25 September 2025, n° 22-24.634: the European coordination regulations “consacrent le principe d’unicité de la législation de sécurité sociale, selon lequel 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”.

The court rejected the appeal and even refused to refer a question to the Court of Justice, there being no reasonable doubt. A British seller affiliated to the British system and not covered by a compulsory French scheme is therefore outside the French social-security charges by the same logic.

Brexit could have destroyed that protection, because the coordination regulation no longer covers the United Kingdom as a Member State. The French tax administration expressly saved it. Its doctrine BOI-RFPI-PVINR-20-20 states, by reference to the withdrawal agreements of 12 November 2019 and 30 December 2020, that from 1 January 2021 property gains are exonerated from CSG and CRDS for sellers who are affiliated to the British social security system, are nationals or legal residents of France, the United Kingdom or another EU Member State, and are not covered by a compulsory French scheme. Three cumulative conditions, all easy to evidence: British social security affiliation, British, French or European Union nationality or legal residence, and no compulsory French cover. If you are retired to the Dordogne under an S1 certificate of coverage from the United Kingdom, or working in London and paying National Insurance while keeping a holiday home in Brittany, you meet them.

What remains payable in that case is only the solidarity levy. The doctrine continues that these gains remain subject only to the 7.5% solidarity levy provided for in article 235 ter of the Code général des impôts, which confirms: “III.-Le taux des prélèvements de solidarité mentionnés au I est fixé à 7,5 %.” The reason only this levy survives is that it is allocated to the State budget rather than to the financing of social security. The difference between 17.2% and 7.5% is enormous. Returning to the Bergerac example, with eighteen years of ownership the social-charges relief runs at 1.65% per year from the sixth to the twenty-first year and 1.60% for the twenty-second year: thirteen years at 1.65% gives 21.45% relief, so 78.55% of the 300,000 euro gain stays taxable, which is 235,650 euros. At 7.5% the solidarity levy is 17,674 euros; at the full 17.2% it would be 40,532 euros. Proving British affiliation is worth nearly 23,000 euros on this sale alone. The administration’s doctrine states the general schedule plainly: 1.65% per year from the sixth to the twenty-first year of ownership, 1.60% for the twenty-second year and 9% per year beyond, so that full exemption from social charges is reached after thirty years. Hold the house thirty years and the social slice disappears whatever your affiliation; sell earlier and your S1 or National Insurance record decides whether you pay 7.5% or the full rate.

Practical warning: the exemption is not automatic at the notaire’s desk. You must produce the evidence — S1 certificate, recent National Insurance or HMRC coverage letter, proof of nationality or legal residence — and the levy computation on form 2048-IMM must apply the correct 7.5% line instead of 17.2%. Sellers who arrive without these papers are routinely charged the full rate and left to claim a refund, which is a slower and more uncertain path than getting the computation right before completion.

II. What the sale requires and how to challenge an excessive bill

A. Do you need a représentant fiscal and what happens with form 2048-IMM

Since Brexit, British-resident sellers face a formality that European Union sellers escape: the accredited tax representative. Article 244 bis A, paragraph IV, of the Code général des impôts 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.” The representative must satisfy strict conditions of fiscal probity, compliance and guarantees, and “Le non-respect de l’une de ces conditions entraîne le retrait de l’accréditation”. The same article then lifts the obligation for some sellers: “L’obligation de désigner un représentant fiscal ne s’applique pas lorsque le cédant est domicilié, établi ou constitué dans un Etat membre de l’Union européenne ou dans un autre Etat partie à l’accord sur l’Espace économique européen”. The United Kingdom is neither, so a seller living in Britain must appoint a représentant fiscal accredited by the French tax administration. Your notaire or solicitor cannot play that role: the administration’s doctrine recalls that neither a notaire nor an avocat may act as représentant fiscal within the meaning of article 244 bis A. Specialist accredited firms exist in Paris, Nice and other cities, and their fee, typically a few hundred to a few thousand euros depending on the price, is simply part of the cost of selling from a third country.

There is one automatic escape that helps many ordinary sales. Without any prior application, an automatic exemption applies where the sale price is 150,000 euros or less. If your studio in Nice or your cottage in the Creuse sells for 150,000 euros or less, no representative is needed and the notaire handles the filing directly. Above that threshold, appoint the representative early: the accreditation and the computation take weeks, and completion cannot proceed cleanly while the tax lines are still disputed.

The declaration itself is form 2048-IMM, the capital-gains return for property, which the representative or the notaire files and pays at registration of the deed or, failing registration, within the month following the sale. The levy computed there is libératoire, meaning it settles the French income-tax on the gain: paragraph V of article 244 bis A of the Code général des impôts provides that “Le prélèvement mentionné au I est libératoire de l’impôt sur le revenu dû en raison des sommes qui ont supporté celui-ci.” You do not then declare the gain again on a French income-tax return. Keep the filed 2048-IMM, the completion statement and every supporting invoice for at least the full challenge and reassessment period: if the administration later questions the base, these papers are your defence, and if you must challenge an overcharge, they are your evidence.

One relief deserves attention before completion, because it is lost forever if missed: the former main home. If the house you are selling was your main home in France when you moved your tax domicile out of France, article 244 bis A of the Code général des impôts exempts the sale outright: “Le premier alinéa du présent 1 n’est pas applicable à la cession de l’immeuble qui constituait la résidence principale en France du cédant à la date du transfert de son domicile fiscal hors de France dans un Etat membre de l’Union européenne ou dans un Etat ou territoire ayant conclu avec la France une convention d’assistance administrative en vue de lutter contre la fraude et l’évasion fiscales ainsi qu’une convention d’assistance mutuelle en matière de recouvrement”. The exemption is conditional: “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.” Sell by 31 December of the year after you left, do not let or lend the house in between, and the gain is fully exempt. The provision adds that “Un contribuable ne peut bénéficier de l’exonération prévue à l’avant-dernier alinéa du présent 1 s’il a déjà bénéficié de l’exonération au titre de la cession d’un logement prévue au 2° du II de l’article 150 U”: it is a once-only favour. British sellers who left France for the United Kingdom should have each condition verified against the current assistance network before relying on it, but where the conditions are met, this single paragraph wipes out the whole levy.

Finally, remember the second half of the story in Britain. Because the gain remains chargeable in the United Kingdom, you must report the disposal to HMRC and compute British Capital Gains Tax on it, then claim credit for the French levy and the French solidarity charge under Article 24 of the convention, which allows French tax paid in accordance with the convention on French-source profits, income or chargeable gains as a credit against the United Kingdom tax computed on the same gains. The credit cannot exceed the British tax on the same gain, so where French tax is higher you bear the French level, and where British tax is higher you pay HMRC the difference. Keep the French 2048-IMM and the proof of payment: HMRC will ask for them before granting relief.

B. How to challenge an excessive bill: complaints, time limits and cases that won

Overcharges happen: the full 17.2% applied although you proved British affiliation, the holding relief miscounted by a year, deductible works rejected, the surtax computed on the wrong base, or a representative’s error carried into the deed. French law gives you a structured ladder, and the first rung is a written complaint to the tax administration, the réclamation. The time limit is set by article R* 196-1 of the Livre des procédures fiscales: “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, selon le cas : a) De la mise en recouvrement du rôle ou de la notification d’un avis de mise en recouvrement ; b) Du versement de l’impôt contesté lorsque cet impôt n’a pas donné lieu à l’établissement d’un rôle ou à la notification d’un avis de mise en recouvrement”. Because the levy is paid at completion without any assessment notice, your deadline is 31 December of the second year after payment: for a sale completed in March 2026, complain by 31 December 2028. A complaint sent after that date is inadmissible whatever its merits, so diary the date on the day you complete.

The complaint must quantify everything. State the correct purchase price with the invoices, the correct holding period with the acquisition deed, the correct relief percentages, the correct social-charges status with the S1 or affiliation proof, and the exact recomputation down to the euro. Attach the 2048-IMM, the completion statement, the representative’s computation and every exhibit. The administration has six months to answer; silence for six months counts as an implied rejection, which opens the door to the tribunal administratif within two further months. Frame the complaint from the start as a document a judge could read: exhibits numbered, figures reconciled, legal bases cited article by article.

The case law shows which arguments succeed. The strongest recent authority for third-country sellers is the Conseil d’État decision of 23 June 2022 already cited, n° 445785, which lays down the method the administration and the judge must follow: The court requires the judge to compare the tax burden of the non-resident with that of a French resident in a comparable situation: “Lorsqu’il apparaît que le contribuable non-résident a été effectivement traité de manière défavorable, il appartient à l’administration fiscale et, le cas échéant, au juge de l’impôt, de dégrever l’imposition en litige dans la mesure nécessaire au rétablissement d’une équivalence de traitement.” If your bill as a British seller exceeds what a French resident would have paid on the identical gain, the excess must be discharged to restore equal treatment. Since the statute now charges individuals 19% regardless of residence, the remaining battleground is usually the social charges: a British-affiliated seller charged 17.2% instead of 7.5% is treated less favourably than the rules allow, and the 9.7-point difference is recoverable on this reasoning combined with the coordination regulations.

The second winning line is the single-legislation principle itself. The Cour de cassation’s September 2025 decision, n° 22-24.634, confirms that a person affiliated to one State’s social security system “ne doit pas contribuer au régime de sécurité sociale d’un autre État membre”, and the French doctrine extends equivalent CSG and CRDS exemption to British-affiliated sellers since 1 January 2021. A 17.2% charge levied on a seller holding a valid S1 or British coverage record contradicts both the statute’s I ter exemption and the published doctrine, and the administration regularly concedes such files once the affiliation proof is complete. If it does not, the tribunal administratif judges the dispute as a tax case with full powers of discharge, and the published doctrine is opposable to the administration: it cannot charge you contrary to its own published interpretation.

Two further points complete the picture. First, the surtax above 50,000 euros is often miscalculated because it applies to the gain after holding relief, not the gross gain, and its bands contain smoothing mechanisms at each threshold (“2 % PV-(60 000-PV) × 1/20” and similar formulas): recompute it from the relieved base before paying or complaining. Second, where the sale was handled by a representative, check that the representative claimed your British affiliation and your exact holding period; representatives work from the papers you give them, and a missing S1 at completion becomes a full-rate charge that you must then recover by complaint. Interest on late payment runs while you dispute, so pay first where recovery is uncertain and challenge afterwards rather than withholding the levy: the complaint procedure refunds overpaid tax with late-payment interest in your favour when you win.

Conclusion

Selling a French second home from Britain after Brexit follows a clear order. France taxes the gain first under article 244 bis A at 19% for individuals, with holding relief extinguishing the income slice after twenty-two years and softening the social slice until thirty. British social security affiliation cuts the social charges from 17.2% to the 7.5% solidarity levy under the Brexit doctrine in force since 1 January 2021. The United Kingdom then taxes the same gain and credits the French tax under Article 24 of the convention. Since Brexit you must appoint an accredited représentant fiscal unless the price is 150,000 euros or less, file form 2048-IMM at completion, and keep every paper. If the bill is wrong, complain in writing by 31 December of the second year after payment, invoking equal treatment as settled by the Conseil d’État in 2022 and the single-legislation principle confirmed by the Cour de cassation in 2025. Prepared this way, the sale is a computation, not a gamble.

Need a quick opinion on your case

If you are selling a French property from the United Kingdom and want the calculation checked before completion, or a bill challenged afterwards, our office offers a telephone consultation within 48 hours with an avocat of the firm. Call 06 46 60 58 22 (+33 6 46 60 58 22 from abroad) or write via our contact page. Bring your acquisition deed, your completion statement, your form 2048-IMM and your proof of British social security affiliation: with those four documents, the correct French tax can usually be established in a single call.