Moving from the United Kingdom to France does not switch off every United Kingdom inheritance-tax connection on the day the removal van leaves. Since 6 April 2025, the UK domestic test has been framed principally by long-term UK residence rather than the former deemed-domicile model. A person who has been UK tax resident for at least ten of the previous twenty tax years may remain within the UK inheritance-tax net for a period after departure. That period is often described as the \u201cten-year tail\u201d, although the actual tail can be shorter and depends on the residence history.<\/p>\n
The French analysis is separate. France may look at the deceased\u2019s French tax domicile, the beneficiary\u2019s residence, the location of each asset and the France\u2013UK inheritance-tax convention. A French domicile fiscal<\/em>, meaning French tax domicile, is not simply the same question as a UK long-term-residence status or a treaty domicile. The result can affect a family home, investment portfolio, pension-related rights, trust interests and gifts made before death. The useful question is therefore not \u201cAm I British, or do I live in France?\u201d It is: which country can tax which asset, under which connecting factor, at what date, and how will the family prove the answer?<\/p>\n The starting point for a British person moving permanently to France is the United Kingdom government\u2019s current guidance on inheritance tax for a long-term UK resident. From 6 April 2025, the former domicile and deemed-domicile rules were replaced in the UK domestic framework by a residence-based test for foreign assets. The official guidance describes a long-term UK resident as a person who was UK resident for the previous ten consecutive tax years, or for at least ten tax years in the previous twenty tax years. The wording matters: this is a tax-year calculation, not a rough count of calendar years spent in Britain.<\/p>\n The current rules are explained in the official GOV.UK guidance on inheritance tax if you are a long-term UK resident<\/a>. It states that a long-term UK resident can remain within the relevant UK inheritance-tax rules for between three and ten tax years after leaving the United Kingdom, depending on the person\u2019s preceding residence history. In broad terms, ten to thirteen relevant UK-resident years can produce a three-year tail; fourteen can produce four years; fifteen can produce five years; and a longer history can lead to a longer tail, up to ten years. The precise application must be checked against the statutory definitions and the tax years concerned.<\/p>\n That creates three dates which should never be merged in a file:<\/p>\n A move in late summer, an overseas work assignment, a split year, or a return visit can make the first date more difficult than the family expects. A person should not count the tail from the day the French lease began without checking the UK tax-year position. The relevant record may include self-assessment returns, P60s, employment contracts, travel calendars, property occupation, family arrangements and the evidence used for the Statutory Residence Test. A French residence permit proves an immigration position; it does not by itself prove the end of UK tax residence.<\/p>\n The UK guidance also warns that returning to the United Kingdom after a period of non-residence can change the outcome. The tail is not a lifetime label attached to a passport. It is a rule applied to a residence history, the departure, any later return and the tax status at the relevant time. A person who left Britain, spent several years in France and then returned should have the entire sequence recalculated. The same applies where a spouse moved first, the other spouse continued working in Britain, or the family retained a UK home that was available for occupation.<\/p>\n The practical test is to construct a year-by-year table before estimating any liability. For each UK tax year, record the days spent in the United Kingdom, the residence conclusion, the source documents and any uncertainty. Then add the departure year and the years after departure. A statement such as \u201cwe have lived in France for five years\u201d is not enough. The relevant question is whether the person had the required number of UK-resident tax years before leaving and which tail period follows from that number.<\/p>\n The reform does not mean that every UK asset is always taxed in Britain for the whole tail. Asset-specific exemptions, reliefs, the ownership structure, the status of a trust, the residence of the deceased and the terms of the France\u2013UK convention can change the result. The long-term-residence status is a gateway question, not the final calculation. It should be recorded as one line in the analysis rather than treated as the answer to the whole estate.<\/p>\n French inheritance tax uses its own connecting factors. The relevant French tax is often called inheritance tax in English; the French expression is droits de mutation \u00e0 titre gratuit<\/em>, meaning transfer taxes imposed on gifts and inheritances. Article 750 ter of the French Code g\u00e9n\u00e9ral des imp\u00f4ts<\/em> (CGI, the General Tax Code) begins with the words Article 750 ter works through several different situations. Where the deceased has French tax domicile, French transfer tax can reach movable and immovable property in France and abroad, subject to the treaty and other rules. Where the deceased is not French tax domiciled, French tax can still apply to French-situs assets. There is also a beneficiary-residence rule: where the heir, legatee or beneficiary is French tax domiciled and has been resident in France for at least six of the previous ten years, the provision can bring assets situated in France or abroad into the French charge. That six-of-ten test is not the UK ten-of-twenty test. It must be calculated separately.<\/p>\n French tax domicile itself is defined by Article 4 B CGI. The official text says: There is a further layer: the France\u2013UK convention on inheritance taxes. The French tax authority\u2019s official doctrine explains that, when a person domiciled in the United Kingdom dies, France may tax succession property situated in France within the treaty\u2019s meaning, and the convention can provide relief against double taxation. The administrative explanation is set out in BOFiP, BOI-INT-CVB-GBR-20-20<\/a>. It is important to distinguish the treaty\u2019s use of domicile from the post-2025 UK domestic expression \u201clong-term UK resident\u201d. A UK status does not automatically answer the treaty question, and a French tax return does not automatically settle the British one.<\/p>\n The French\u2013UK treaty is designed to allocate taxing rights and reduce double taxation; it is not a universal exemption. The asset must first be classified. A French house, a UK share portfolio, a bank account, an insurance contract, a trust interest and a debt can each have a different situs or treaty treatment. Ownership must also be identified. A jointly held asset is not analysed by looking only at the bank statement or the surviving owner\u2019s name. The family should establish the beneficial ownership, the legal title, the acquisition funds, any survivorship clause and the deceased\u2019s actual share.<\/p>\n The distinction is illustrated by the Court of Cassation, Commercial Chamber, 18 November 2020, no. 18-14.242<\/a>. In a tax dispute involving a trust, the Court reproduced the statutory connecting factor: For a British family, the correct preliminary matrix is therefore:<\/p>\n Skipping one row can produce an apparently contradictory result: Britain claims foreign assets because the tail is still running, while France claims a French asset because it is situated in France, and the family assumes the treaty will remove both liabilities. The treaty may provide a credit, but the credit is normally limited by the convention and the tax attributable to the overlapping asset. It is not a reason to delay the filing or to leave a country\u2019s return blank.<\/p>\n A cross-border inheritance file should be built as an evidence file, not as a collection of conclusions. The first document is a residence chronology. Use a table with one row per tax year and columns for country, days, home available, work, family, tax return, residence conclusion and supporting document. Keep the departure date, the first French arrival, the first French tax return, the date of the French tax number, the date of any residence permit and the date of any later UK return. If an adviser has made a split-year or Statutory Residence Test analysis, preserve the calculation and the assumptions that support it.<\/p>\n For the UK side, the file may include:<\/p>\n For the French side, preserve the first and subsequent French income-tax returns, tax-residence certificates where available, avis d’imp\u00f4t<\/em> (French tax notices), rental or ownership records, employment or business documents, social-security affiliation and evidence of the household\u2019s main life. The certificate of a French residence permit belongs in the file, but it should be labelled as immigration evidence. It should not be presented as conclusive proof of tax domicile.<\/p>\n The asset schedule should identify the asset at the date of death, the owner, the beneficial owner, the acquisition date, the value, the currency, the situs, the supporting account or title document and the proposed country of taxation. For a French property, retain the deed, land-registry information, valuation, mortgage statement and any usufruct or bare-ownership document. Usufruit<\/em> means a right to use property or receive its income; nue-propri\u00e9t\u00e9<\/em> means bare ownership without that use. These rights are not interchangeable when the estate is valued.<\/p>\n For UK securities, use the broker statement at the date of death, a valuation methodology, the issuer and account location. For bank accounts, record the contractual holder, authorised signatories and beneficial entitlement. For life insurance, record the policy, premium history, beneficiary clause and the law governing the contract. For a pension, separate the nature of the death benefit from the pension-holder\u2019s personal income-tax position. The fact that a product is called a pension in Britain does not decide its French classification.<\/p>\n If a trust is involved, obtain the trust instrument, deeds of appointment, trustee accounts, distribution history, letters of wishes, governing law, settlor details, beneficiary class and the asset register. French law has a specific trust-tax framework. Article 792-0 bis CGI is a useful starting point for classification; the family should compare the current wording on L\u00e9gifrance, Article 792-0 bis CGI<\/a> with the instrument and the date of each event. A trust should not be omitted because the family sees it as an administrative wrapper, and it should not be treated as a simple company because a UK document uses familiar language.<\/p>\n Gifts require their own chronology. Article 784 CGI requires earlier gifts to be disclosed in a succession declaration and provides for the aggregation of gifts within the statutory period. Its current text is available at L\u00e9gifrance, Article 784 CGI<\/a>. Keep deeds, bank transfers, gift letters, tax receipts and evidence of the recipient\u2019s relationship to the donor. A gift made shortly before the move, a gift made during the UK tail, or a gift to a child who is French tax domiciled can change both the reporting and the rate analysis.<\/p>\n Do not rely on an informal family statement that \u201cthe house was always for the children\u201d. Record the legal document and the economic reality. The same principle applies to a loan, an advance, a joint account or a company share transfer. A document can be validly signed yet still fail to answer the tax question if it does not identify who owned the asset and when the transfer became effective.<\/p>\n The file should also contain translations when a French authority, bank or notaire<\/em>\u2014a French civil-law notary\u2014needs to understand an English document. A translation helps communication, but it does not cure an unclear original, an incomplete apostille trail or a missing chain of title. Keep the original document, the translation, the translator\u2019s details and the date of each version. Do not edit an English will or trust instrument in the translation to make it sound more compatible with French terminology.<\/p>\n The French filing timetable is a hard practical constraint. Article 641 CGI states: Article 800 CGI sets the general declaration obligation. It provides that heirs, legatees and donees must submit a detailed declaration, subject to the limited statutory exemptions. The official text is at L\u00e9gifrance, Article 800 CGI<\/a>. An estate with no immediate French cash liability may still require a declaration or a formal analysis. \u201cNo tax to pay\u201d and \u201cno filing to make\u201d are different conclusions.<\/p>\n The calculation should be reconstructed in stages. First, identify the gross estate and the debts that can be taken into account. Secondly, apply the relevant exemptions, allowances and relationship-based rules. Thirdly, determine the net taxable share for each heir or beneficiary. Fourthly, apply the French rate schedule, where France has taxing rights. Article 777 CGI states that the transfer-tax rates are set in tables for the net share received by each beneficiary; the current tables are on L\u00e9gifrance, Article 777 CGI<\/a>. Article 779 CGI provides, among other allowances, a 100,000 euro allowance on the share of each child or ascendant in the circumstances stated in the text; check the current conditions at L\u00e9gifrance, Article 779 CGI<\/a>.<\/p>\n Earlier gifts must be brought into the computation where Article 784 applies. The 2026 text refers to gifts made within the statutory fifteen-year period, subject to the detailed exceptions and rules in the article. That means a family that made a substantial gift before Brexit, or before the move to France, should not assume that the date makes it irrelevant. The date, recipient, instrument, amount and prior tax treatment must be checked.<\/p>\n After the French liability is calculated, compare it with the UK inheritance-tax position. Establish whether the UK long-term-residence tail is active at the death date, which foreign assets it can affect, whether a relief or exemption applies, and what tax is actually paid in Britain. Then check the France\u2013UK convention. The credit mechanism depends on the convention allocation, the asset involved, the tax paid and the procedural route. The official BOFiP material on the convention explains the French treatment and the possibility of a reduction corresponding to UK tax in the situations covered by the treaty, subject to the conditions and time limit.<\/p>\n Do not enter a UK tax figure in a French return without tracing its source. Preserve the HMRC assessment, payment evidence, computation, exchange rate and correspondence. If UK tax is paid after the French declaration, the family may need to use the treaty\u2019s refund or later-claim procedure rather than guessing a credit in the first filing. BOFiP\u2019s treaty guidance refers to a five-year period for requesting the relevant reduction from the date of death in the circumstances it describes. Read that procedure with the current forms and the actual treaty analysis; a general foreign-tax credit from an income-tax return is not a substitute.<\/p>\n The French tax authority uses form no. 2740 for certain claims connected with inheritance-tax conventions. The family should confirm the current version, supporting documents, signing authority and filing office before submission. The form is not a magic key: it must be supported by the estate computation, proof of the UK tax, the treaty connection, the asset allocation and the reason the French tax overlaps. Keep proof of submission and a copy of every attachment.<\/p>\n There may also be a succession-law dispute separate from tax. A will can determine who receives an asset, but it does not automatically determine where that asset is taxed. Conversely, payment of tax does not settle whether a beneficiary was lawfully excluded. The French Civil Code defines the French forced-heirship reserve, r\u00e9serve h\u00e9r\u00e9ditaire<\/em>, as the part of the estate which the law protects for certain heirs. Article 912 states: Article 913 then limits gifts and testamentary dispositions according to the number of children: one child, two children, or three or more children produce different protected proportions. The current wording is available at L\u00e9gifrance, Article 913 of the Civil Code<\/a>. Article 921 provides the conditions and limitation periods for an action for reduction; see L\u00e9gifrance, Article 921 of the Civil Code<\/a>. These provisions should be considered alongside the law applicable to the succession, the Regulation (EU) No 650\/2012 issues that may remain relevant to a particular estate, any valid choice of law, and the status of the UK after Brexit.<\/p>\n The Court of Cassation has warned against turning a French forced-heirship rule into an automatic override of every foreign succession law. In the Court of Cassation, First Civil Chamber, 27 September 2017, no. 16-13.151<\/a>, the Court stated: Jurisdiction is another question. In the Court of Cassation, First Civil Chamber, 21 September 2022, no. 19-15.438<\/a>, the Court reproduced the European rule on subsidiary competence: Before submitting anything, run a final five-question review:<\/p>\n If any answer is \u201cnot yet\u201d, the risk is not limited to an arithmetic error. A missing residence document can alter the scope of the estate; a missing gift can alter the rate band; a missing treaty claim can create double payment; and an unreviewed will can create a family dispute long after the tax deadline. The best time to build the evidence is before the death of the second spouse or before a property is sold to fund the tax.<\/p>\n For a British person who has recently moved to France, the most useful next step is often a coordinated residence-and-estate memo. It should state the UK tail, the French tax domicile conclusion, the treaty position, the asset map, the filing deadline, the expected tax in each country and the documents still missing. That memo can then be given to the French notary, the UK tax adviser and the family members who must sign or fund the declarations. It prevents each adviser from working from a different version of the facts.<\/p>\n The UK inheritance-tax tail after a move to France is not automatically ten years, and it does not disappear merely because a British resident obtains French residence documents. Since 6 April 2025, the UK long-term-residence test can leave a three-to-ten-year connection after departure, measured against the relevant tax-year history. France applies different rules, including French tax domicile, the beneficiary\u2019s six-of-ten residence test and the situs of the asset. The France\u2013UK convention may coordinate the two charges, but only after the estate has been classified and the relief procedure has been evidenced.<\/p>\n A robust file therefore begins with a dated residence table, continues with an asset-and-gift schedule, and ends with a treaty-aware calculation and timely declarations. Keep the UK and French concepts separate, quote the law in force on the relevant date, and make the evidence carry the conclusion. A will, a French home or a British passport may be important; none of them, alone, answers the inheritance-tax question.<\/p>\n We offer a telephone consultation within 48 hours with a lawyer at the firm.<\/p>\n We can review your move to France, UK inheritance-tax tail, French declaration and treaty evidence.<\/p>\n Call Ma\u00eetre Reda Kohen on +33 6 46 60 58 22<\/a>.<\/p>\nI. How long can UK inheritance tax continue after a move to France?<\/h2>\n
A. What the UK ten-year tail actually measures<\/h3>\n
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B. Why the UK tail and French tax domicile are different tests<\/h3>\n
Sont soumis aux droits de mutation \u00e0 titre gratuit<\/q>. The current text is available on L\u00e9gifrance, Article 750 ter CGI<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Sont consid\u00e9r\u00e9es comme ayant leur domicile fiscal en France au sens de l’article 4 A :<\/q> It then refers, among other matters, to the household or principal place of stay, professional activity and centre of economic interests. The operative text is Article 4 B CGI on L\u00e9gifrance<\/a>. A person can therefore be French tax resident while still having a live UK inheritance-tax question, and a person can have a French immigration document without satisfying every French tax or treaty analysis.<\/p>\n
Selon ce texte, sont soumis aux droits de mutation \u00e0 titre gratuit les biens meubles et immeubles situ\u00e9s en France ou hors de France lorsque le donateur ou le d\u00e9funt a son domicile fiscal en France au sens de l’article 4 B et ceux re\u00e7us par l’h\u00e9ritier, le donataire ou le l\u00e9gataire qui a son domicile fiscal en France au sens de cet article.<\/q> The decision does not say that every British person living in France owes French tax on everything. It shows why the deceased\u2019s status, the beneficiary\u2019s status and the asset location must be tested against the text rather than reduced to nationality.<\/p>\n
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II. What evidence and filing strategy protect a British estate in France?<\/h2>\n
A. Which documents prove the timeline, the assets and the treaty position?<\/h3>\n
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B. How should the family file, claim relief and check the result?<\/h3>\n
De six mois, \u00e0 compter du jour du d\u00e9c\u00e8s, lorsque celui dont on recueille la succession est d\u00e9c\u00e9d\u00e9 en France m\u00e9tropolitaine; D’une ann\u00e9e, dans tous les autres cas.<\/q> The current article is published on L\u00e9gifrance, Article 641 CGI<\/a>. The place of death is relevant to the six-month or one-year period, but it does not decide the country entitled to tax. A death in England can still lead to a French declaration because of a French property, a French-domiciled beneficiary or another French connecting factor.<\/p>\n
La r\u00e9serve h\u00e9r\u00e9ditaire est la part des biens et droits successoraux dont la loi assure la d\u00e9volution libre de charges \u00e0 certains h\u00e9ritiers dits r\u00e9servataires<\/q>. The current text is at L\u00e9gifrance, Article 912 of the Civil Code<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Mais attendu qu’une loi \u00e9trang\u00e8re d\u00e9sign\u00e9e par la r\u00e8gle de conflit qui ignore la r\u00e9serve h\u00e9r\u00e9ditaire n’est pas en soi contraire \u00e0 l’ordre public international fran\u00e7ais et ne peut \u00eatre \u00e9cart\u00e9e que si son application concr\u00e8te, au cas d’esp\u00e8ce, conduit \u00e0 une situation incompatible avec les principes du droit fran\u00e7ais consid\u00e9r\u00e9s comme essentiels ;<\/q> The lesson is fact-sensitive. A British will is not automatically invalid in France, but its practical effect on the family, the applicable conflict rule and the children\u2019s position can matter.<\/p>\n
Selon ce texte, titr\u00e9 \u00ab Comp\u00e9tences subsidiaires \u00bb, lorsque la r\u00e9sidence habituelle du d\u00e9funt au moment du d\u00e9c\u00e8s n’est pas situ\u00e9e dans un \u00c9tat membre, les juridictions de l’\u00c9tat membre dans lequel sont situ\u00e9s des biens successoraux sont n\u00e9anmoins comp\u00e9tentes pour statuer sur l’ensemble de la succession dans la mesure o\u00f9 le d\u00e9funt poss\u00e9dait la nationalit\u00e9 de cet \u00c9tat membre au moment du d\u00e9c\u00e8s.<\/q> That case is not a tax calculation. It shows why a French court\u2019s possible jurisdiction, the law governing the estate and the tax authority\u2019s taxing power should be recorded in separate boxes.<\/p>\n
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Conclusion<\/h2>\n
Need a quick opinion on your case<\/h2>\n