Your father dies in Manchester. You have lived in Lyon for nine years. Within days, two legal machines start moving without waiting for you. In England, the bank freezes his accounts, the house cannot be sold, and nobody can touch the portfolio until a grant of probate is issued. In France, a twelve-month clock starts running toward a detailed tax return that covers not only what sits in England but, in many cases, everything you receive wherever it sits. Each country taxes first and asks questions later, and the treaty that prevents you paying twice only works if you claim it in the right form, at the right office, with the right proof. This guide follows the order in which a British resident of France actually meets the problem: whether France can tax English assets at all, which court and which law govern the estate, what has to be filed and when, how the Franco-British treaty credit is obtained in practice, and how to challenge double taxation, late penalties or a file that the other side refuses to release.<\/p>\n
A few terms need fixing before anything else, because every official letter you receive will use them. The droits de mutation \u00e0 titre gratuit<\/em> are the French transfer duties on inheritances and gifts. A notaire<\/em> is a French public officer who settles estates and draws up the authentic instruments banks require. The d\u00e9claration de succession<\/em> is the detailed estate return filed with the French tax office. A mise en demeure<\/em> is a formal demand to file that starts the thirty-day grace period before heavier penalties apply. A grant of probate is the English court document that gives the executor the legal right to deal with the estate. Keep these five in mind; the rest of this guide turns on them.<\/p>\n The short answer alarms most readers, so it should come first: yes, in the common case France taxes the English assets as well as any French ones. Article 750 ter of the General Tax Code<\/a> provides that “Sont soumis aux droits de mutation \u00e0 titre gratuit : 1\u00b0 Les biens meubles et immeubles situ\u00e9s en France ou hors de France” (moveable and immoveable property situated in France or outside France is subject to transfer duties) “lorsque le donateur ou le d\u00e9funt a son domicile fiscal en France au sens de l’article 4 B” (where the donor or the deceased had their tax domicile in France within the meaning of Article 4 B). If the person who died lived in France, the whole worldwide estate falls inside the French return, including the semi-detached house in Leeds, the Halifax savings and the ISA portfolio. The same article adds a third case that catches many British families the other way round: “Les biens meubles et immeubles situ\u00e9s en France ou hors de France” received by “l’h\u00e9ritier, le donataire, le l\u00e9gataire ou le b\u00e9n\u00e9ficiaire d’un trust d\u00e9fini au m\u00eame article 792-0 bis qui a son domicile fiscal en France au sens de l’article 4 B” are taxable in France, with one time limit that matters enormously: “cette disposition ne s’applique que lorsque l’h\u00e9ritier, le donataire ou le b\u00e9n\u00e9ficiaire d’un trust a eu son domicile fiscal en France pendant au moins six ann\u00e9es au cours des dix derni\u00e8res ann\u00e9es pr\u00e9c\u00e9dant celle au cours de laquelle il re\u00e7oit les biens” (this provision applies only where the heir, donee or trust beneficiary has had their tax domicile in France for at least six years during the ten years before the year in which they receive the property). In plain terms, if you have lived in France for six of the last ten years and your mother dies in England leaving you her house, France taxes your inheritance even though neither she nor the house ever touched France.<\/p>\n Tax domicile itself is wider than most British readers expect. Article 4 B of the General Tax Code<\/a> treats as domiciled in France “1. Sont consid\u00e9r\u00e9es 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 s\u00e9jour principal ; b. Celles qui exercent en France une activit\u00e9 professionnelle, salari\u00e9e ou non, \u00e0 moins qu’elles ne justifient que cette activit\u00e9 y est exerc\u00e9e \u00e0 titre accessoire” (persons who have their household or principal place of residence in France, and persons who carry on a professional activity in France, employed or not, unless they show that activity is merely secondary). Your foyer<\/em>, the household, is where your family life is centred; your s\u00e9jour principal<\/em>, the principal stay, is where you spend most of the year. Meeting either test is enough. A British retiree who spends eight months a year in the Dordogne, or a British employee working full time in Paris with weekends in Kent, is French tax domiciled for succession purposes even while keeping a British passport and a UK bank account. The consequence is mechanical: the worldwide return applies, and the treaty discussed in Part II decides how much of the bill France keeps.<\/p>\n What France then charges depends on who you were to the person who died. Article 779 of the General Tax Code<\/a> grants that “Pour la perception des droits de mutation \u00e0 titre gratuit, il est effectu\u00e9 un abattement de 100 000 \u20ac sur la part de chacun des ascendants et sur la part de chacun des enfants vivants ou repr\u00e9sent\u00e9s par suite de pr\u00e9d\u00e9c\u00e8s ou de renonciation” (for the collection of transfer duties, an allowance of 100,000 euros applies to the share of each parent and to the share of each living child, or child represented following predecease or renunciation). Each child therefore receives 100,000 euros clear of French duty before the scale bites. Article 777 of the General Tax Code<\/a> then provides that “Les droits de mutation \u00e0 titre gratuit sont fix\u00e9s aux taux indiqu\u00e9s dans les tableaux ci-apr\u00e8s, pour la part nette revenant \u00e0 chaque ayant droit” (transfer duties are set at the rates shown in the tables below, on the net share of each beneficiary), with the direct-line table running from 5 per cent on the first slice to 45 per cent above 1,805,677 euros. Between brothers and sisters the rates are 35 and 45 per cent after a small allowance; between unrelated people the rate is 60 per cent. Take a worked example. Your widowed mother dies in Bristol leaving you, her only child, a house worth 420,000 euros and savings of 80,000 euros. The French taxable share is 500,000 euros, less the 100,000-euro allowance, leaving 400,000 euros taxed on the progressive scale at roughly 78,000 euros before any treaty credit. That figure shocks readers who assumed that English assets stay in England. The treaty credit in Part II exists precisely to reduce it, but the starting point is full French taxation and the burden of claiming relief sits on you.<\/p>\n Britain, meanwhile, runs its own charge on the same death. The UK government states that The standard Inheritance Tax rate is 40%. It’s only charged on the part of your estate that’s above the threshold, and that no tax is due where the value of your estate is below the \u00a3325,000 threshold or you leave everything above the \u00a3325,000 threshold to your spouse, civil partner, a charity or a community amateur sports club (Inheritance Tax on GOV.UK<\/a>). In the Bristol example the estate of 500,000 euros, roughly \u00a3430,000, exceeds the \u00a3325,000 nil-rate band, so about \u00a3105,000 bears 40 per cent, close to \u00a342,000, before reliefs such as the residence nil-rate band that a detailed valuation may add. Gifts made in the years before death can also be pulled back into the British charge, with taper relief reducing the rate according to how long before death the gift was made. Two treasuries therefore tax the same house in the same year under opposite logics: France because the heir lives in France, Britain because the house stands in Britain. Paying both in full and hoping one side refunds you spontaneously is the single most expensive mistake in this whole area. The treaty mechanism below is the only organised exit.<\/p>\n Before any tax is computed, three practical questions decide everything else: who is legally entitled, in which country the succession is opened, and which court can rule if the family disagrees. French civil law starts from a blunt rule. Article 720 of the Civil Code<\/a> states that “Les successions s’ouvrent par la mort, au dernier domicile du d\u00e9funt” (successions open upon death, at the last domicile of the deceased). Where the deceased last lived therefore points to the law and the authorities of first resort. For cross-border estates inside Europe, the EU Succession Regulation of 4 July 2012 organises jurisdiction around the same idea: the courts of the Member State where the deceased had their habitual residence at death decide the succession as a whole. The Court of Cassation has given this rule its full weight. In its judgment of 29 May 2019, No. 18-13.383, the First Civil Chamber held that “sont comp\u00e9tentes pour statuer sur l’ensemble d’une succession les juridictions de l’\u00c9tat membre dans lequel le d\u00e9funt avait sa r\u00e9sidence habituelle au moment de son d\u00e9c\u00e8s” (the courts of the Member State in which the deceased had their habitual residence at the time of death have jurisdiction to rule on the succession as a whole), adding that “l’autorit\u00e9 charg\u00e9e de la succession doit proc\u00e9der \u00e0 une \u00e9valuation d’ensemble des circonstances de la vie du d\u00e9funt au cours des ann\u00e9es pr\u00e9c\u00e9dant son d\u00e9c\u00e8s et au moment de son d\u00e9c\u00e8s, prenant en compte tous les \u00e9l\u00e9ments de fait pertinents, notamment la dur\u00e9e et la r\u00e9gularit\u00e9 de la pr\u00e9sence du d\u00e9funt dans l’\u00c9tat concern\u00e9 ainsi que les conditions et les raisons de cette pr\u00e9sence” (the authority dealing with the succession must carry out an overall assessment of the circumstances of the deceased’s life in the years before death and at the time of death, taking into account all relevant facts, in particular the duration and regularity of presence in the State concerned and the conditions and reasons for that presence) (Cass. 1re civ., 29 May 2019, No. 18-13.383<\/a>). Where the deceased split life between countries, nationality and the location of the main assets can tip the assessment. For a British reader this means the French court of the deceased’s last French home will normally take charge of the whole file, while an English court keeps control of the English land formalities, and the two systems cooperate rather than compete.<\/p>\n One complication deserves attention because it now arises in almost every British family file: the deceased lived in England, so no Member State court has habitual-residence jurisdiction, yet French heirs ask a French court to act because assets or nationality connect the estate to France. The Court of Cassation faced exactly that configuration and, on 18 November 2020 in case No. 19-15.438, chose to ask Luxembourg first, ruling: “Les dispositions de l’article 10, point 1a), du r\u00e8glement (UE) n\u00b0 650\/2012 du Parlement europ\u00e9en et du Conseil du 4 juillet 2012, relatif \u00e0 la comp\u00e9tence, la loi applicable, la reconnaissance et l’ex\u00e9cution des d\u00e9cisions, et l’acceptation et l’ex\u00e9cution des actes authentiques en mati\u00e8re de successions et \u00e0 la cr\u00e9ation d’un certificat successoral europ\u00e9en doivent-elles \u00eatre interpr\u00e9t\u00e9es en ce sens que, lorsque la r\u00e9sidence habituelle du d\u00e9funt au moment du d\u00e9c\u00e8s n’est pas situ\u00e9e dans un Etat membre, la juridiction d’un Etat membre dans lequel la r\u00e9sidence habituelle du d\u00e9funt n’\u00e9tait pas fix\u00e9e mais qui constate que celui-ci avait la nationalit\u00e9 de cet Etat et y poss\u00e9dait des biens doit, d’office, relever sa comp\u00e9tence subsidiaire pr\u00e9vue par ce texte?” (Must Article 10(1)(a) of Regulation (EU) No 650\/2012 be interpreted as meaning that, where the deceased’s habitual residence at death was not in a Member State, the court of a Member State in which habitual residence was not fixed but which finds that the deceased had that State’s nationality and owned property there must, of its own motion, take up the subsidiary jurisdiction provided for by that provision?), and ordering a stay pending the answer (Cass. 1re civ., 18 Nov. 2020, No. 19-15.438<\/a>). The lesson for British heirs is concrete: even when the deceased died domiciled in England, a French court can still be seised on a subsidiary basis, for example to appoint an administrator (mandataire successoral<\/em>, the court-appointed estate manager) or to settle the French tax and civil consequences, and the question of who decides what should be raised early rather than discovered after conflicting decisions.<\/p>\n On the ground, two paper chains run in parallel and each side refuses the other’s documents until they are translated into its own formalities. On the English side, the GOV.UK guidance explains that Probate is the legal right to deal with someone’s property, money and possessions (their ‘estate’) when they die, warns that You should not make any financial plans or put property on the market until you’ve got probate, and requires the family to clarify the Inheritance Tax position first: Before applying for probate, you must find out if you need to pay Inheritance Tax (applying for probate on GOV.UK<\/a>). Until the grant issues, the English bank will not release the balance to a French-resident heir and the Land Registry will not register a transfer. On the French side, heir status is proved by the acte de notori\u00e9t\u00e9<\/em>, the notarial certificate of heirship: article 730-1 of the Civil Code<\/a> provides that “La preuve de la qualit\u00e9 d’h\u00e9ritier peut r\u00e9sulter d’un acte de notori\u00e9t\u00e9 dress\u00e9 par un notaire, \u00e0 la demande d’un ou plusieurs ayants droit” (proof of heirship may result from a certificate drawn up by a notary at the request of one or more beneficiaries). The French notaire draws up this certificate from death certificates, birth certificates and any will, then uses it to unblock French accounts, and a European Certificate of Succession can carry the same proof across borders for the English assets. In practice the family solicitor in England obtains probate while the notaire in France draws up the acte de notori\u00e9t\u00e9<\/em>, and each sends certified copies to the other. Starting both tracks in the first month saves the file from the most common deadlock, which is each office waiting for the other to move first.<\/p>\n Both tracks are then squeezed by the French filing deadline, which many British families discover too late. Article 641 of the General Tax Code<\/a> sets the time limits bluntly: “Les d\u00e9lais pour l’enregistrement des d\u00e9clarations que les h\u00e9ritiers, donataires ou l\u00e9gataires ont \u00e0 souscrire des biens \u00e0 eux \u00e9chus ou transmis par d\u00e9c\u00e8s sont : 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” (returns of property devolving by death must be registered within six months from death where the deceased died in metropolitan France, and within one year in all other cases). A death in England therefore gives twelve months, not six, but the year includes obtaining probate, valuing the English house, converting pounds to euros at the death-date rate and getting the treaty proof from HMRC, each of which can take months. Article 800 of the General Tax Code<\/a> adds that “Les h\u00e9ritiers, l\u00e9gataires ou donataires, leurs tuteurs ou curateurs, sont tenus de souscrire une d\u00e9claration d\u00e9taill\u00e9e” (heirs, legatees and donees, their guardians and curators, must file a detailed return), with only narrow exemptions: “Les ayants cause en ligne directe, le conjoint survivant et le partenaire li\u00e9 par un pacte civil de solidarit\u00e9 lorsque l’actif brut successoral est inf\u00e9rieur \u00e0 50 000 \u20ac” (direct-line heirs, the surviving spouse and the civil partner where the gross estate is below 50,000 euros, and no prior unregistered gift was received) and other beneficiaries below 3,000 euros. Almost every Anglo-French estate exceeds those thresholds, so the return is compulsory, the valuation date is the date of death, and the file must list the English assets in euros with the exchange evidence attached.<\/p>\n France and the United Kingdom signed a succession treaty on 21 June 1963 that is still the instrument which prevents the same house being taxed in full twice. The French tax administration’s official commentary explains its architecture: Selon les stipulations de la convention du 21 juin 1963, la suppression des doubles impositions relatives aux successions de personnes ayant leur domicile en France ou dans le Royaume-Uni, quelle que soit, par ailleurs, leur nationalit\u00e9, r\u00e9sulte d’une part, des r\u00e8gles fixant la situation des biens h\u00e9r\u00e9ditaires \u00e0 l’\u00e9gard de l’\u00c9tat autre que celui du domicile du de cujus (Convention, art. 3 \u00e0 5) (under the convention of 21 June 1963, the elimination of double taxation on estates of persons domiciled in France or the United Kingdom, whatever their nationality, results first from the rules fixing the treatment of inherited property vis-\u00e0-vis the State other than that of the deceased’s domicile, Articles 3 to 5 of the Convention) (BOI-INT-CVB-GBR-20-20, Convention with the United Kingdom on successions<\/a>). Nationality is therefore irrelevant; domicile and the situs of each asset decide which State has the first right to tax, and the State of domicile then relieves the resulting double charge by credit. Land and buildings are taxable where they stand, so the Leeds house is taxable in Britain first, while bank accounts, shares and most moveables follow the domicile. This allocation is the mirror image of the situation where a British owner dies holding a French house, in which France taxes the French property first and Britain gives relief; readers facing that reversed configuration will find the detailed French-property-first analysis in our companion guide on who taxes the French house when a British owner dies and how the treaty credit is challenged<\/a>.<\/p>\n The credit itself is not automatic; it is claimed on a special form and capped in a way that surprises many families. The same official commentary states: Les ayants droit de la succession (ou leur repr\u00e9sentant) d’une personne ayant son domicile en France qui veulent obtenir l’imputation de l’imp\u00f4t britannique sur les droits de mutation exigibles en France doivent remplir un imprim\u00e9 sp\u00e9cial n\u00b02740 en double exemplaire qu’ils peuvent se procurer aupr\u00e8s du service des imp\u00f4ts des particuliers des non r\u00e9sidents (SIP-NR) (beneficiaries of a person domiciled in France who seek credit of British tax against French transfer duties must complete special form No. 2740 in duplicate, available from the non-residents tax office, the SIP-NR) (BOI-INT-CVB-GBR-20-20<\/a>). In practice the heir files the French d\u00e9claration de succession<\/em> declaring the worldwide assets, pays or arranges the French duties, has HMRC certify the British tax on the English assets on the form, and the French office deducts the certified amount. Two limits then apply. First, only British tax on property taxable in Britain under the treaty and also taxable in France under the treaty can be credited: seul est imputable l’imp\u00f4t per\u00e7u sur les biens imposables dans ce pays d’apr\u00e8s la convention et \u00e9galement imposables en France d’apr\u00e8s la m\u00eame convention (only tax levied on property taxable in that country under the convention and also taxable in France under the same convention may be credited) (BOI-INT-CVB-GBR-20-20<\/a>). Second, where the foreign tax was paid before the French duties, le montant reconnu imputable de cet imp\u00f4t est directement d\u00e9duit du montant de l’imp\u00f4t fran\u00e7ais \u00e0 percevoir (the recognised creditable amount being deducted directly from the French tax due), and otherwise relief comes by repayment afterwards. Return to the Bristol example: French duties of about 78,000 euros, British Inheritance Tax of about \u00a342,000 on the house. The British tax attributable to the house, once certified on form 2740, is deducted from the French bill, leaving roughly the balance plus any French tax on the savings that Britain did not tax. The family pays once in full and once for the difference, instead of twice in full. For heirs living in Paris and the inner suburbs, the practical circuit is short: the d\u00e9claration de succession<\/em> goes to the local tax office of the heir’s domicile, while form 2740 is obtained from and returned through the non-residents office, so the file should name both offices from the start and keep proof of every sending.<\/p>\n Two frequent variations change the computation and must be spotted before filing. The first is the lifetime gift. If the deceased gave the English house or a large sum to the heir a few years before death, France may treat the gift and the inheritance as one taxable mass through the fifteen-year reminder rule, while Britain applies its own seven-year potentially-exempt-transfer clock with taper relief. The two look-back periods do not coincide, so an asset outside British tax as an old gift can still inflate the French bill, and an asset taxed in Britain as a recent gift may have no French counterpart to credit against. The second variation is the family trust. Many English estates pass through discretionary trusts, and the Court of Cassation has fixed the French timing rule for them: “le fait g\u00e9n\u00e9rateur des droits de mutation \u00e0 titre gratuit est constitu\u00e9 par le transfert de propri\u00e9t\u00e9, qui, s’agissant de biens plac\u00e9s dans un trust, s’op\u00e8re par l’effet de la distribution de l’actif du trust au b\u00e9n\u00e9ficiaire final, au jour de sa cl\u00f4ture, laquelle peut \u00eatre post\u00e9rieure au d\u00e9c\u00e8s du constituant” (the chargeable event is the transfer of ownership which, for property in a trust, occurs through distribution of the trust assets to the final beneficiary, on closure, which may be after the settlor’s death) (Cass. com., 18 Nov. 2020, No. 18-14.242<\/a>). A British heir who is merely a potential beneficiary of an ongoing English trust therefore owes nothing in France yet, while the heir who receives the distribution on closure is taxed then, with the treaty credit available on any British exit charge on the same assets. Declaring a trust interest too early, or omitting a distribution that has occurred, are the two opposite errors that generate the largest reassessments in these files.<\/p>\n Even a careful file can produce three kinds of dispute: both treasuries taxing the same asset with no credit given, penalties for missing the twelve-month deadline, and an office on one side of the Channel refusing to release what the other side demands. Each has its own remedy, and the order in which they are used matters. Start with double taxation that survives the treaty claim. The first step is a written claim to the French tax office that assessed the duties, attaching the grant of probate, the HMRC Inheritance Tax account with proof of payment, the certified form 2740 and a schedule matching each English asset to its British tax and its French entry. Most surviving double charges come from mismatch rather than bad faith: the Leeds house valued at probate in pounds and declared in France in euros at a different date, the British tax paid by the estate as a whole rather than allocated asset by asset, or the credit refused because the asset was characterised differently on each side. A documented reallocation, with valuations aligned to the date of death and the exchange rate evidenced, resolves a large share of cases without litigation. Where the two administrations genuinely read the treaty differently, the treaty provides a mutual agreement procedure under which the French and British authorities consult each other; raising it requires showing that taxation has occurred or is threatened contrary to the convention, so the dossier must quote the treaty articles and both assessments precisely.<\/p>\nI. Which country taxes what when you live in France and someone dies in England?<\/h2>\n
A. Does France really tax an English house, English savings and English shares?<\/h3>\n
B. Which court decides, which law applies, and what must be filed within six or twelve months?<\/h3>\n
II. How do you pay once, prove it, and challenge the rest?<\/h2>\n
A. How does the 1963 treaty credit work and what does form 2740 change?<\/h3>\n
B. How do you challenge double tax, late penalties or a blocked file?<\/h3>\n