Inheritance tax: why the relief is not for now

Succession is, it seems, a certain quagmire for many French people. This system, provided for by law, allows an individual to bequeath his estate after his death. But all this has a cost, for the heirs. And in France, it can quickly become staggering.

In France, transfers after death are taxed, according to a specific scale, taking into account the degree of “proximity” between the deceased and his heirs. The tax rate can thus rise to 45% in the case of parent-child transmission, when the assets exceed €1,805,677 per child.

Moreover, the more distant the “family” link, the more the heirs are taxed. For example, in the case of an inheritance between an uncle and his nephew, the scale can go up to 60%.

And this tax applies to all property, movable or immovable, that is passed on.

The public service website states as follows:

In Europe, France thus has the reputation of “champion” of particularly high inheritance taxes.

No wonder, therefore, that politicians have recently taken up this subject, which concerns many French people.

President Emmanuel Macron even made it one of the hobbyhorses of his last campaign, with this promise in sight: to finally reduce inheritance costs. The candidate had thus mentioned on several occasions his wish to reform the system, in order to better “take into account the evolution of real estate prices”, develops Le Figaro.

It is surely to go in its direction that Aurore Bergé and Mathieu Lefèvre, Renaissance deputies, the group of the presidential majority in the National Assembly, tabled an amendment on September 30 before the Finance Committee.

It aims to enshrine Emmanuel Macron’s promise in law, to index inheritance taxes to real estate prices, and thus, to reduce them.

But this measure is far from unanimous, especially within the presidential majority, which Aurore Berger also chairs in the hemicycle.

Because this text would indeed have been tabled by the two deputies without any prior consultation with the political group, provoking the discontent of many elected officials, reveals Le Figaro.

“There is a big bronca internally, some elected officials have asked to withdraw their signature from the amendment. The subject is explosive but Aurore Bergé seems determined to put it in the debate… Not really the behavior of a group leader”, even confides an elected official in the columns of the daily newspaper.

Finally, the minister delegate in charge of public accounts, Gabriel Attal, decided during his trip to Martinique.

The relief of inheritance costs, it is therefore probably not for now…