It is a bummer that probably all or at least 55% of the hard and honestly earned money which I ploughed into buying my tiny weeny house here will go the French government. I am divorced and never had children and with luck, I will live longer than my only older brother. If I don’t then he will have to pay tax of 45% less a tax free allowance of £5000 and if I do then when I flip over, the house will go to my two nephews, his sons.
Both my nephews will be required to pay 55% of my estate, which will probably only be the house, after a tax-free allowance of €5,000 has been taken off its value. But will they be able to dig deep in their pockets for this percentage – I don’t think so and if they don’t manage to rustle up this money within 6mths or at an arranged stretch up to a year then the French government will sell the house and take all the proceeds.
But what are my options… selling up and returning to the UK; changing the ownership to a company, or selling by viager. I don’t want to take any of these routes and why should I !?
Surely this is discrimination against single people (either by destiny, sexuality, choice, divorce or widowhood) or folk who have tragically lost their heir(s) by illness or accident. Why don’t the French recognise this too. Why aren’t they pushing to reform the inheritance tax levels and these unreasonable, greedy tax grabbing percentages – is this why the French prefer to rent rather than buy and then risk giving everything to the government when they die – hey that’s another option, sell up and rent but could I afford it ?
Can we discuss this and maybe someone has some bright alternatives to suggest
Hello
I thought you might find this useful for your situation:
There are SIGNIFICANT changes to the way that inheritance law is applied to expats living in France.
The adoption of a new EU regulation will allow people resident in France to write in a French will that they want the law of their nationality – and not French inheritance law – to apply to their estate.
This enables them to bypass existing restrictive French rules governing to whom you can leave your estate.
It allows residents of a country applying the regulation to opt in a will for the law of the country of their nationality to apply to the whole estate.
The regulation will enter into force at the latest next month or in July and would take three years before it was applicable, so summer 2015.
There is nothing to stop you making a French will now, including a clause saying you want “UK law” to apply to your whole estate. The council spokesman said this would be the correct wording, as the UK is the member state as recognised by the EU.
Hope this is useful and good luck
Amanda
I go with Andrew there. We bought in my wife's name. Apart from a few bills my name is absent. That is because I am not far from a couple of decades older than my OH. We have two daughters who are our/her direct heirs.
A French friend told us to do it this way after his paternal grandparents died. Both of his parents and maternal grandparents were already gone but the ones he was the only heir to both lived to great age. Then both went in a few months and suddenly he had a house in Franche Comte somewhere. He normally lived in Freiburg in Switzerland, but was a couple of hours drive from Besançon where he had all the legal and fiscal business. It absolutely floored him. In the end he sold the house under value, paid a mountain of taxes and came out of it wondering why he had bothered.
Although entirely trained and practising in Switzerland rather than his own country France, he is nonetheless a lawyer. He primed us with warnings based on his experience. Mind you, he is also the person who warned us not to buy in Switzerland because of the taxes at the time of buying. I suspect it is often a case of lose on the roundabouts and gain on the swings.
Good post, Doreen, the French don't question it because they don't know it can be different and doesn't seem wrong. They also have another way of considering the state - the expect far more from it but "accept" that their cherished system coûte cher ! It's the same being in business here, in the UK I paid around 25% of what I earnt to the state in tax and NI. Here in France I pay 46% in charges sociales then get taxed on top of that which in some cases means up to 60% of what I earn going to the state. BUT this is France not the UK, that's just the way it is!
I'm sure you'll get plenty of advice from those in the know.