sorry if this is in the wrong category - I could not see one for wills.
My wife & I have a ‘communauté universalle’ so when either of us die, the estate passes to the other. I understand that if we both die then our estate will under French law pass equally to our two children. Can anyone confirm if this is correct please.
My question is in regard to our UK bank account. Will the funds in that also be subject to the French laws and automatically pass to our children - or should we have in addition, a UK will?
Even if you are married under the régime of communauté universelle that ends at the death of either partner and the estate only passes intact to the survivor if there’s a clause d’attribution intégrale.
In reply to the question you actually asked: it might be worth having a chat with a notaire who’s used to dealing with French and UK situations.
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A british friend of ours got caught expensively. They were resident in France, the husband died in France and everything was smoothly inherited by the wife and daughter(on his part of the joint ownership). However, the husband had UK bank accounts in his name only and when the widow went to claim them, she got a massive tax bill as there was a fair amount in the total of all the UK accounts not in her name. It was not the french fisc who taxed her, but the UK revenue because the accounts were over there and once the banks had been informed of the death it opened up a big tax bill as she was non resident.
We are resident in France and have accounts in the UK and declare tax in the UK as well as in France. We PAY no tax in the UK, but that’s because we are taxed in France. However, in the event of one of us dying, the other will inherit the moneys in the UK accounts. Since the total amounts held in the UK a/cs will be below the personal allowance of either of us we will not be taxed.
I find it strange she was taxed? Was he not declaring tax in the UK (unwise). Was the amount of money held in those accounts so large that it came above her basic allowance? Interesting. 
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They were pretty wealthy, he was a top motor engineer and had fingers in many pies andproperty so probably well over the threshold but if I remember she ended up paying just short of £20k in tax back because she told me all about it one day when she was feeling very down. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was ducking and diving and the chickens came home to roost at the end.
That’s tough.
At least they weren’t children and another woman! 
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This is interesting. I do not declare my UK savings to the UK tax authority. I didn’t realise one is supposed to.
I do declare them to the French tax authorities and pay tax on the interest.
In France the banks tell the tax authorities ones interest earned.
I assumed that it is the same in the UK?
Your circumstances may be different. We also have a property in the UK on which we receive rental so it is essential the UK tax man knows about our financial circumstances. I think it might be wise to check up whether or not the UK tax authorities need to know about you.
Basically you are correct that children automatically inherit part or all the estate, depending how it is formed.
I am going through a similar exercise at present and I urge you to take the advice of chatting with a Notaire who can advise of things like choosing UK law over French and in so doing what is possible. It gets quite involved.
Regarding foreign sourced income not declared, responsibilty of a French resident in tax declaration and double taxation treaties - I’d definitely ask 
If you’re French resident/non UK resident, interest in the UK is not taxable by HMRC - only France can tax that source under the UK/France tax treaty. Same with UK (broadly) non government service/private sector pensions.
If you complete a UK tax return, you are meant to report what is called ‘treaty exempt income’ (eg interest or UK non governmental service pensions) on a specific schedule, presumably so HMRC can see what income is (legitimately) not being taxed by them!