Inheritance Tax in France If You Have No Children: What You Need to Know

• A spouse or PACS partner pays 0% French inheritance tax — but if you have no partner and no children, your nearest heirs (siblings, nieces, nephews) get small allowances and steep rates on the rest
• Friends and unrelated people get just a €1,594 allowance, then 60% tax on everything above it
• Assurance-vie, charitable bequests, and lifetime gifting rules can legally reduce or eliminate what would otherwise be a very large bill
• None of this is automatic — it has to be set up while you're alive, and some of it (like the 15-year gift rule) needs real lead time

If you're married or PACSed, French inheritance tax mostly isn't your problem — your partner inherits tax-free. But if you're single, divorced, widowed, or simply have no children, the people you'd naturally want to leave money to can face some of the harshest succession tax rates in Europe.

This article covers who pays what by default, and the main legal tools available to change that outcome. For how French inheritance tax works in general — including the rules for children and forced heirship — see our guide to how inheritance tax works in France.

The default rates if you have no children

French succession tax depends entirely on your relationship to the person who died — not on the size of the estate alone. Without a spouse or PACS partner (who are fully exempt), here's what your heirs face:

The gap between the top and bottom rows is the whole story. A sibling inheriting €100,000 pays tax on roughly €84,000 of it at 35–45%. A friend inheriting the same €100,000 pays 60% on almost all of it — over €59,000 in tax on a €100,000 gift.

These allowances and rates apply per heir, not per estate — so leaving smaller amounts to more people doesn't help unless each of them individually falls under their own allowance.

Assurance-vie: the main tool that sits outside these rules

A French assurance-vie contract isn't part of your taxable estate if you name a beneficiary. It pays out directly to whoever you name, bypassing the succession rates above entirely — and it comes with its own, far more generous allowance.

If premiums were paid before you turned 70:

• Each beneficiary can receive up to €152,500 completely tax-free
• Above that, 20% applies up to €700,000 per beneficiary, then 31.25% beyond that

If premiums were paid after you turned 70:

• Only the portion of premiums above a combined €30,500 (across all your contracts, not per beneficiary) is taxed
• What's taxed is added to the estate and taxed at the normal rates in the table above — so a friend named as beneficiary would still be looking at 60% on their share past the small allowance

The beneficiary can be anyone — a friend, a niece, a charity. That per-person €152,500 allowance applies regardless of how closely related they are to you, which is precisely why assurance-vie is the standard vehicle for leaving money to people outside your immediate family. A friend inheriting €150,000 through a will pays close to €89,000 in tax. The same friend named as an assurance-vie beneficiary, premiums paid before you turned 70, pays nothing.

The catch is timing: this only works cleanly if premiums go in before age 70. After that, the allowance shrinks dramatically and applies across everything you hold, not per beneficiary. See our SIPPs vs Assurance Vie guide for how this compares to UK pension and savings wrappers. And because a friend or non-relative is exactly the case where a poorly worded beneficiary clause is most costly if it goes wrong, see our guide to getting the assurance-vie beneficiary clause right.

Giving away property while keeping the right to live in it

You can donate a property (or other assets) while retaining the right to live in it or receive its income — a structure called donation avec réserve d'usufruit. You give away the nue-propriété (bare ownership) and keep the usufruit (right of use).

Only the bare-ownership value counts in your estate — not the full market value — and the split is set by your age at the time of the gift under Article 669 of the CGI. Older donors give away a larger share of the value for tax purposes at a given nominal split, because the usufruct they're keeping is worth less the fewer years they're expected to hold it.

When you die, the usufruct simply ends by operation of law. The recipient becomes full owner automatically, with no further tax due on that transfer — the tax was already paid (or exempted) on the reduced bare-ownership value at the time of the original gift.

This lets you shift a meaningful share of a property's value out of your taxable estate now, while still living in it or collecting the rent, for as long as you're alive.

If you're buying property jointly with a partner rather than passing on something you already own, a tontine clause is a different tool worth knowing about — it can secure the whole property for a surviving partner outside the normal succession process, though the tax savings are limited for unmarried couples. See our full guide to tontine clauses in France.

Leaving assets to charity: the one guaranteed 0%

Bequests to qualifying charities and public-utility foundations (reconnues d'utilité publique) are entirely exempt from French inheritance tax — no allowance ceiling, no rate, nothing owed.

The comparison is stark. A house worth €150,000 left to a nephew, after the €7,967 allowance, is taxed at 55% on the remainder — over €78,000 in tax. The same house left to a qualifying charity: zero tax, full €150,000 received.

If you have no close heirs, this is usually the most tax-efficient way to direct any portion of your estate you're not routing through assurance-vie. You can leave all of it, or just the part not otherwise allocated — there's no requirement to choose one or the other.

Giving during your lifetime: the 15-year rule

France lets you give money or assets away tax-free during your life, up to the same allowances as at death (€15,932 to a sibling, €7,967 to a niece or nephew, per gift), and those allowances reset every 15 years.

The catch: any gift made within 15 years of your death gets added back into your taxable estate for calculation purposes. The recipient keeps what you gave them — but the value is treated as if it were still in your estate when working out the tax on everything else.

That means lifetime gifting only fully shrinks your taxable estate if you give early enough that 15 years pass before you die — which nobody can guarantee, but which argues strongly for starting sooner rather than later if this is part of your plan.

There's a separate, useful relief here too: under Article 790 G of the CGI, cash gifts up to €31,865 to a grandchild — or to a niece or nephew if you have no children — are exempt from gift tax, provided you're under 80 and the recipient is an adult. These don't come back into the estate calculation after 15 years like the standard allowance gifts do.

Common mistakes

1. Assuming a long-term partner is treated like a spouse. Only a legal spouse or PACS partner gets the 0% exemption. An unmarried partner, however long the relationship, is taxed as an unrelated person — the 60% band.

2. Paying assurance-vie premiums after 70 without checking the impact. The generous €152,500-per-beneficiary allowance only applies to premiums paid before you turn 70. After that, a single €30,500 allowance applies across everything you hold, and the excess is taxed at standard succession rates.

3. Waiting too long to start lifetime gifting. The 15-year rule means a gift made in your final years does little to reduce your final tax bill, even though the recipient keeps the money. Early planning matters more than the size of any single gift.

4. Not naming a beneficiary on an assurance-vie contract. Without a named beneficiary, the funds fall back into the ordinary estate and are taxed under the standard rates — losing the entire point of holding the policy.

5. Overlooking charity as an option. For anyone without close family, a charitable bequest is often dismissed as "not relevant" when it's actually the single most tax-efficient way to direct part of an estate.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does a spouse or partner pay inheritance tax in France?

No. A legal spouse or PACS partner is fully exempt from French inheritance tax, regardless of the size of the estate. This exemption does not extend to unmarried partners, however long the relationship, who are taxed as unrelated persons.

How much can I leave to a friend tax-free in France?

Very little through a normal bequest — just €1,594, with 60% tax on everything above that. The main way to improve on this is naming the friend as a beneficiary on an assurance-vie contract, where the allowance rises to €152,500 per beneficiary if premiums were paid before you turned 70.

Is assurance-vie really outside my estate for inheritance tax?

Yes, provided you've named a beneficiary. The proceeds pass directly to that person under Article 990 I of the CGI rather than through the normal succession process, with their own allowance and rate structure that's typically far more favourable than standard inheritance tax.

Do charities really pay zero inheritance tax in France?

Yes. Bequests to charities and foundations recognised as reconnues d'utilité publique are completely exempt from French inheritance tax, with no cap on the amount.

What happens if I give money away before I die?

Gifts use the same tax-free allowances as inheritances (e.g. €15,932 to a sibling), and those allowances reset every 15 years. However, any gift made within 15 years of your death is added back into your estate for tax calculation purposes, so the tax benefit of lifetime giving depends on how far in advance it's done.

For more on this topic, browse our Inheritance & Succession Tax category.