Technical article

France: Can France Still Take 60% at My Death if the Trust Is Abroad?

If the settlor lives in France, the duties apply to all trust assets wherever they are.

By Neil Solomon · 3 min read

Imagine a man who lives in France and set up a trust in another country in 2015. His three adult children live in different places. He wonders what France does when he dies, since the trust is not in France and the trustee is not French.

The sources point to a special duty on trust assets at the settlor's death. French law sets it out in article 792-0 bis of the general tax code. The administrator of the trust pays it. Its rate depends on who stands to receive.

The 60% rate has two further triggers. It applies whatever the family link, if the administrator sits in a state that does not cooperate on tax matters, or if the trust was created after 11 May 2011 by a settlor who lived in France. So a French resident who set up a trust in 2015 may meet 60% even when the heirs are his own children. This is a tier B source, a French tax journal from 2024. The French tax office's own page on trusts is not among the sources. A guide from an unofficial site gives the same two rates and the same triggers.

Two more rules sit beside it. Assets held in the trust for less than a year before death are presumed to be part of the estate. And if the administrator is in a state that does not cooperate, the beneficiaries are jointly liable for the duty.

Who is reached depends on residence. If the settlor lives in France, the duties apply to all trust assets wherever they are. If the settlor and the beneficiary both live abroad, only assets in France are reached, unless the beneficiary has lived in France for at least six of the last ten years.

You might say: "My trust is abroad, so France has no hook." The sources read the other way for a French resident settlor. The duty follows the person, and the trust's location does not remove it. Treaties can change the result. The United States and France have an estate and gift tax treaty, listed by the IRS, so a family with American ties may want to read it.

France also has its own inheritance scale for heirs outside a trust. It runs 5% to 45% in the direct line after an allowance of EUR 100,000 (approximately US$110,000) per child per parent. A spouse or partner in a civil union is exempt. Relatives to the fourth degree pay 55%, and others pay 60%. The headline rate in a PwC chart of death and gift taxes for France is 60%, which matches the top figure for trusts.

You could ask the trustee and the family a few things now. When was the trust created, and where did the settlor live that year? Who is named to receive, and is the share fixed or joint? Where is the administrator?

This touches the children most, since the shares and the family link set the rate. It touches the administrator, who files and pays. It also touches the papers: the date of creation and the settlor's residence on that date may decide which rate applies.

If you live in France with a trust abroad, what did you learn when you asked how the duty would be calculated? Share it here. Someone in the same position may be grateful.

Figures are estimates for planning, based on public data. Date read: October 2026.