Gifting a home to your children in France: allowance

The €100,000 allowance and the scale of duties

For a gift from a parent to a child, service-public.gouv.fr (F14203 and F14205) provides for:

• an allowance of €100,000 per parent and per child: a couple can therefore pass on €200,000 to each child free of duties;
• a period of 15 years: the allowance covers gifts made by the same donor to the same recipient over 15 years. A child who received €100,000 from one parent in 2015 can again receive €100,000 free of duties in 2030.

On the portion above the allowance, the parent-to-child scale applies:

Service-public.gouv.fr’s example: on a taxable portion of €100,000, the duties come to €18,194. To simulate your own case, use the calculateur donation et succession (gift and inheritance calculator).

Not to be confused with: the temporary exemption for gifts of money, up to €100,000 per donor and €300,000 per recipient, covers money paid from 15 February 2025 to 31 December 2026 to buy a new or off-plan (VEFA) home or to fund an energy renovation (F10203), not the gift of an existing home. Unless the scheme is extended, gifts paid from 2027 onwards no longer qualify.

Giving while keeping the usufruct

The parent can give the bare ownership and reserve the usufruct: they continue to live in the home or receive its rents, while the child becomes the nu-propriétaire (bare owner) (see our guide on démembrement (split ownership)).

Duties are then charged only on the value of the bare ownership, set by article 669 of the CGI according to the age of the usufructuary on the date of the gift (F14205; F934; extract from the scale):

So a 65-year-old parent who gives the bare ownership of a €300,000 home passes on, for tax purposes, €180,000 (60%), of which €100,000 is covered by the allowance.

On the death of the usufructuary, the usufruct merges with the bare ownership: under article 1133 of the CGI, this merger “gives rise to no tax or duty”, subject to article 1020.

The donation-partage

The donation-partage makes it possible to give and divide all or part of one’s assets during one’s lifetime among one’s presumptive heirs, usually the children (F1266). It can cover the bare ownership, be made by both spouses (conjonctive (joint) donation-partage) and include grandchildren (transgénérationnelle (cross-generational) donation-partage).

Its main advantage is in civil law. Under article 1078 of the Code civil (Civil Code), unless otherwise agreed, the assets are valued at the date of the donation-partage for allocation and for calculating the réserve (the share of the estate reserved by law for certain heirs), provided that all the héritiers réservataires (forced heirs) living or represented at the death have received a share and expressly accepted it, and that no reserved usufruct relates to a sum of money.

For tax purposes, the duties and exemptions are the same as for an ordinary gift (F1266).

What a gift cannot do

• Exceed the quotité disponible (the freely disposable portion of the estate) in favour of a single child: the forced heirs can bring an action en réduction (claim to reduce the gift) when the estate is settled. The disposable portion is 1/2 with one child, 1/3 with two, 1/4 with three or more (F1404; see our guide on succession immobilière (inheriting property)).
• Be undone: a gift is in principle irrevocable, except for non-performance of conditions, ingratitude, or the birth of a child if the deed provided for it (F1404).
• Avoid capital gains tax on a resale: if the child sells, their purchase price is the value used to calculate the gift duties (F10864). An undervaluation in the deed therefore increases the future plus-value (capital gain).

Notary’s fees

The notarial deed is compulsory. The notary’s fees (émoluments) are proportional to the full-ownership value of the property given (F1404; F1266):

A gift that includes real estate also incurs land registration charges (F1404): the taxe départementale de publicité foncière (departmental land registration tax), whose rate “is reduced to 0.60% for transfers between living persons without consideration” (CGI, art. 791), also applies to donations-partages; on top of this come assessment and collection costs and the contribution de sécurité immobilière (land registry fee) (BOI-ENR-DMTG-20-40).

Which professional to consult

The notaire (notary) is essential: they draw up the deed, check that the forced heirs’ reserved share is respected, calculate the duties and declare them. A reliable valuation of the home, which an agent immobilier (estate agent) can provide, serves both to calculate the duties and for the child’s future capital gain.