In France, passing on your assets can be a real headache when you have to navigate between fairly heavy taxation and increased life expectancy. But it is possible to take advantage of tax levers to benefit your heirs without compromising your own financial security. If the tax reflex pushes for anticipation, prudence requires a progressive and structured strategy. “ It’s necessary anticipate to the maximum, with no minimum age, depending on assetsadvises Xavier Colard, associate lawyer at Cazals Manzo. While structuring the whole because we must not dispossess ourselves of everything. We don’t know what the future will bring “.
Inheritance taxes can reach up to 45% in direct line. To mitigate this cost, the legislator has provided for significant reductions whose effectiveness is based on the long term. Article 779 of the General Tax Code (CGI) allows you to transmit 100,000 euros per parent and per child every 15 years without any inheritance tax. Added to this is the Sarkozy donation (article 790 G), allowing a donation of sums of money of €31,865 additionalbefore reaching 80 years old. The strategy is clear: give early (from age 45 or 50) to hope to repeat the operation.
Donation: estimate your future needs above all
Before giving, it is crucial to estimate your future needs: retirement financing, risk of dependency, or protection of the surviving spouse. In single-earner couples, a poorly calibrated donation can leave the survivor vulnerable. For example, the expert does not necessarily advise the donation of the main residence, in the event of a late disagreement. On the other hand, the donation with charges allows us to anticipate “ assistance provided to donors without them being financially abandoned, for example, or a retirement home supported “.
Beware of the trap of simple donation : upon the death of the donor, the assets are revalued at their value on the day of inheritance sharing. If one child received an asset that increased in value and the other a sum of money, deep imbalances and legal disputes can appear decades later. While donation-sharing makes it possible to freeze the values on the day of the act, by securing the transmission. “ Pay attention to the valuation of donated goodsalerts the lawyer. The tax administration is quite careful about the fact that it is assessed on the day of the donation. Undervaluation could be considered tax fraud “.
Transmit before age 71
The other major lever is dismemberment of property. By transmitting only bare ownership of an asset while retaining the usufruct, the donor continues to enjoy the asset or receive income from it. Fiscally, the value of bare ownership is calculated according to the scale of article 669 of the CGI, linked to the age of the donor. Transferring before age 71 allows you to benefit from a 40% discount on the value of the property, 30% between ages 71 and 80. “ This works quite well for SCI shareswarns Xavier Colard. I use a scale linked to the age of the donor to calculate the value of what will be transmitted “.
To transmit a professional tool, the stakes are increased tenfold. THE Dutreil pact remains the king device, with a reduction of 75% of the valuebut it requires a certain rigor of execution and concerns operational activities (industrial, commercial, artisanal, liberal or agricultural) and one of the signatories must exercise a management function. Recent modifications (Finance Law 2026) highlight the importance of holding periods, up to 8 years. A subject to necessarily anticipate.
Donation: the right dosage and the right schedule
In summary, the right timing would be to use tax allowances as a calendar reminder. Besides, not everyone has the same reaction on this subject: “ Some people see this topic as a foot in the graveanalyzes the lawyer. Others don’t want to pass on anything during their lifetime because they did it alone. There are also sometimes those who prefer that a large part return to the State to be redistributed to avoid the perpetuity of wealth. “.
