French gift/inheritance tax

R

Raffie

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My son & his wife are moving to France & will be living & working there for at least 4-5 years. They have lived & worked outside of Ireland for the past 5 years
What are the gift/inheritance tax implications for them & us (we are Irish resident) if we were to buy a property in France & they were to rent it from us for the next few years - we would then sign ownership over to them. Is there any savings for them in regard to gift/inheritance tax (we currently own property in Ireland that we alternatively could sign over to them - incurring CGT for us & tax for them as it has a value of €500k). Difficult to navigate the French taxation system via Google(!) so any clarity would be much appreciated!!
 
If you're considering spending €500K, then get proper tax advice from some accountant/tax advisor with experience in both countries. Also remember that tax law can and often does change at annual budgets, so all the planning in the world in 2017 might come to naught in 2019.
 
Absolutely second what Ravima has to say.

Your son lives in some other unspecfied country at the moment. What are the tax laws which apply there?
He is moving to France. What are the property and tax laws there?
The donor is Irish.

It may be that there is no tax on gifts received in the country where he is now. So this might be the time to give him a gift. Before he goes to France.

But any gift to him now would use up his CAT allowance in Ireland anyway - I assume.

There are so many moving parts that neither Askaboutmoney nor Google is appropriate, other than to get some general ideas and principles such as:

Don't plan too far ahead with so many moving and changeable parts.

As a general principle, you probably should keep things simple unless there are very strong reasons for making it complex. For example, you should not buy a property in another country and rent it to him, unless there is a very compelling tax or legal reason for this.

If he is going to be living there for only 5 years, then he is probably better off renting rather than buying. This would be part of the principle of keeping things simple.

Brendan
 
Good advice given. Another important consideration with regard to France is making a will in that country. Ok, your children are fit and healthy, etc, but anything can happen and at any time. The rules of inheritance in France are much more complicated than here in Ireland.
 
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