Two subjects often meet in the same family: what passes from one generation to the next, and what a parent's loss of autonomy costs. This guide describes the French rules in force on 21 October 2026, as published by the tax administration, Service Public and the CNSA (the national solidarity fund for autonomy). It is not advice: every situation depends on the matrimonial regime, the family, the place of residence and past gifts, which only a notary or an adviser can examine.
Timing. The 2027 finance bill, tabled at the Assemblée nationale on 1 October 2026, contains measures on gifts and on life insurance (see the last section). Until it is passed and published, the rules below apply.
Lifetime gifts: allowances in the direct line
A gift from a parent to a child is taxed after an allowance. The law provides that the allowance is restored after 15 years between the same donor and the same recipient: a gift made more than 15 years ago no longer uses it up.
| Relationship | Allowance per donor and per recipient, over 15 years |
|---|---|
| Child | €100,000 |
| Grandchild | €31,865 |
| Great-grandchild | €5,310 |
Above the allowance, the taxable share follows a progressive scale, the same for gifts and inheritances in the direct line:
| Taxable share after allowance | Rate |
|---|---|
| up to €8,072 | 5% |
| €8,073 to €12,109 | 10% |
| €12,110 to €15,932 | 15% |
| €15,933 to €552,324 | 20% |
| €552,325 to €902,838 | 30% |
| €902,839 to €1,805,677 | 40% |
| above €1,805,677 | 45% |
Example computed from this scale. A parent gives €150,000 to a child, with no other gift between them in the last 15 years. The taxable share is 150,000 − 100,000 = €50,000.
- 5% × 8,072 = €403.60
- 10% × (12,109 − 8,072) = 10% × 4,037 = €403.70
- 15% × (15,932 − 12,109) = 15% × 3,823 = €573.45
- 20% × (50,000 − 15,932) = 20% × 34,068 = €6,813.60
Total: €8,194.35 of duty. Each parent has an allowance of their own, so the same sum given half by each parent is a different calculation.
The family gift of money
Alongside the allowance, the French tax code (article 790 G) exempts up to €31,865 given in money, per donor and per recipient, renewable every 15 years. The conditions published by Service Public:
- the donor is under 80 on the day of the gift;
- the recipient is an adult or emancipated, and is a child, grandchild, great-grandchild or, if there are no descendants, a nephew or niece;
- the gift is made by cheque, transfer or cash, and declared within one month.
The two schemes combine. Service Public gives the total: an adult child can receive up to €131,865 free of duty from a parent under 80 (€31,865 family gift plus the €100,000 allowance); from a grandparent, €63,730 (€31,865 + €31,865).
The temporary gift for a new home or energy renovation, until 31 December 2026
The 2025 finance law (law no. 2025-127 of 14 February 2025, article 71, codified as article 790 A bis of the tax code) created a temporary exemption. It covers sums paid between 15 February 2025 and 31 December 2026.
- Cap: €100,000 per donor and per recipient, and €300,000 per recipient across all donors.
- Recipients: child, grandchild, great-grandchild or, failing those, nephew or niece. Neither Service Public nor the BOFiP (the tax administration's official doctrine) sets an age condition, unlike the article 790 G family gift.
- Use: the money must be spent by the last day of the sixth month after payment, on buying a new or off-plan home, or on energy-renovation work eligible for MaPrimeRénov' in the main residence. Excluded, among others: building a detached house outside an off-plan purchase, contributions to a SCI and buying bare ownership alone.
- Holding: the home stays the main residence, or is let as someone's main residence, for 5 years; otherwise the exemption is withdrawn.
The 2027 finance bill, as tabled, does not extend this scheme. A payment made in 2027 is therefore outside it, unless the text changes before it is published.
Splitting ownership: giving the bare ownership
Giving the bare ownership (nue-propriété) of an asset while keeping the usufruct means only a fraction of its value is taxed. The fraction depends on the usufructuary's age, under the tax scale of article 669 of the tax code:
| Usufructuary's age | Usufruct | Bare ownership |
|---|---|---|
| under 21 | 90% | 10% |
| under 31 | 80% | 20% |
| under 41 | 70% | 30% |
| under 51 | 60% | 40% |
| under 61 | 50% | 50% |
| under 71 | 40% | 60% |
| under 81 | 30% | 70% |
| under 91 | 20% | 80% |
| 91 and over | 10% | 90% |
On the usufructuary's death, the tax doctrine (BOFiP) states that the reunion of usufruct and bare ownership "gives rise to no duty", with one reservation for assets where the deceased held the usufruct and their presumptive heirs the bare ownership.
Computed example. A 65-year-old parent gives a child the bare ownership of an asset valued at €300,000. At 65, bare ownership is worth 60%, i.e. €180,000. After the €100,000 allowance, the taxable share is €80,000: 403.60 + 403.70 + 573.45 + 20% × (80,000 − 15,932) = 1,380.75 + 12,813.60 = €14,194.35. The same gift in full ownership (taxable share €200,000) would give 1,380.75 + 20% × 184,068 = €38,194.35.
Inheritance in the direct line
On death, each child has a €100,000 allowance, at the death of each of the two parents, then the scale above. A surviving spouse or PACS partner is exempt from inheritance tax. A disabled heir has an additional €159,325 allowance, on top of the others.
Gifts made by the deceased to the same heir less than 15 years before death are recalled: they have used up all or part of the allowance. Those older than 15 years, and family gifts of money declared within the month, are not.
Life insurance on death
Sums paid to the beneficiary of a French life-insurance policy (assurance-vie) follow a separate regime, which depends on the insured's age when each premium was paid:
| Premiums paid | Regime (policies taken out since 20 November 1991) |
|---|---|
| before age 70 (article 990 I) | €152,500 allowance per beneficiary, then a 20% levy up to €700,000 of taxable share and 31.25% above |
| after age 70 (article 757 B) | inheritance tax on the premiums above a €30,500 allowance, shared across all policies and all beneficiaries; interest and gains are excluded |
A spouse or PACS partner beneficiary is not subject to the article 990 I levy. The family allowance (€100,000 for a child) can be added to the €30,500 of article 757 B.
The cost of a care home (EHPAD)
A French care home (EHPAD) bills an accommodation rate, paid by the resident, a dependency rate, which depends on the level of lost autonomy (the GIR scale), and a care package paid by health insurance.
For 2024 (published 1 April 2026), the CNSA gives an average monthly reference price, single room, permanent stay, including accommodation and the minimum dependency contribution, before aid: €2,164 for a room approved for social aid and €3,128 for a room that is not. Average daily dependency rates are €22.65 (GIR 1-2), €14.36 (GIR 3-4) and €6.11 (GIR 5-6). An average price is nobody's actual bill: the CNSA breaks out gaps by département, legal status, location and size of the home.
Aid: APA, ASH and the tax reduction
The personal autonomy allowance (APA) in a care home is for people aged at least 60 assessed at GIR 1 to 4. It pays part of the dependency rate, never the accommodation rate. The resident always pays at least the GIR 5-6 rate, and more above certain income levels (for a single person, €2,846.77 and then €4,379.64 a month according to Service Public, page checked on 1 June 2026). APA is not recovered from the estate, nor from a donee or a life-insurance beneficiary.
Accommodation social aid (ASH), paid by the département, is for people over 65 (or over 60 if recognised unfit for work) whose income does not cover the fees, in an approved place. It normally leaves the resident at least 10% of their income, and never less than €125 a month. Unlike APA, it is recoverable: from the estate, from certain gifts made in the 10 years before the application or after it, and where the person's finances improve; Service Public does not give a complete list there, and the social-action code provides further cases. The département may take into account the income of those under a maintenance obligation; grandchildren are exempt.
The tax reduction for dependency costs (article 199 quindecies of the tax code) is 25% of dependency and accommodation costs in an EHPAD or long-term care unit, up to €10,000 per resident per year, so €2,500 at most. Aid received (APA, social aid, housing allowance) is deducted from the costs counted. It is a tax reduction: it is set against the tax due.
Example: €30,000 paid in the year, of which €4,000 covered by APA. Costs counted: €26,000, capped at €10,000. Reduction: 25% × 10,000 = €2,500, within the limit of the tax due.
The maintenance obligation
The French civil code requires children and grandchildren to support a parent or other ascendant in need; sons- and daughters-in-law owe it to their parents-in-law too, while certain conditions last (it ends in particular when the spouse who created the tie has died and the couple's children have also died). Without agreement, the family judge sets the amount according to one person's needs and the other's resources; there is no scale. The judge may release a child whose parent seriously failed in their own duties, and release is automatic in certain cases (loss of parental authority, conviction for certain crimes, the child's placement outside the family for at least 36 months before age 18).
Support paid to an ascendant in need is deductible from taxable income, with no cap, if it matches their essential needs and the payer's resources.
What the 2027 finance law may change
The bill tabled on 1 October 2026 (no. 3210) provides, for gifts made between 1 January and 30 June 2027:
- a rise in the family gift of money limit from €31,865 to €50,000;
- a single 6% rate on gifts of money, in full ownership, to a descendant aged 18 to under 50 (a nephew or niece where there are no descendants), up to €100,000 per donor and per recipient. The rate would be 5% if the recipient pays at least 1.1% of the sums received to an aid body under article 200-1 ter of the tax code before the gift is declared, which remains due within the month.
It also provides that life-insurance policies that do not meet certain conditions (premiums paid in cash, reference assets, no securities from the family circle) lose their inheritance regime for deaths from 1 July 2027. According to the text as tabled, the cash-premium condition is judged on premiums paid from 1 October 2026, the income-tax effect (article 125-0 A) targets contracts and premiums from that same date, and a new ban in the insurance code (article L. 131-1-3) would apply to contracts signed from 1 October 2026: a reader paying premiums today is therefore concerned by dates earlier than the date of death. These measures are proposals: they may be amended, dropped or added to during the parliamentary debate.
What this guide does not cover
Matrimonial regimes and benefits between spouses, the reserved share and the disposable portion, gift-partitions (donations-partages), international estates and non-residents, property companies (SCI), the Dutreil pact and business transfers, retirement savings plans (PER) on death, life-insurance policies taken out before 20 November 1991, gifts between spouses or to third parties, care at home (home APA, tax credit for home help) and each département's own ASH rules.
What IgniFI does and does not do here
IgniFI calculates neither gifts nor inheritance, and the withdrawal plan does not model the cost of a care home: these rules depend on each family's situation and change often. This guide explains the texts; the figures of a specific case are for a notary or an adviser.
Sources
All read on 21 October 2026.
- Service Public, gift duties by relationship (checked 13 May 2026): https://www.service-public.gouv.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/F14203
- Service Public, gifts of money, family gift and new-home / renovation gift (checked 1 January 2026): https://www.service-public.gouv.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/F36656
- BOFiP, BOI-ENR-DMTG-20-20-20-20250904 (articles 790 G and 790 A bis): https://bofip.impots.gouv.fr/bofip/3362-PGP.html/identifiant=BOI-ENR-DMTG-20-20-20-20250904
- Service Public, inheritance tax in the direct line (checked 9 February 2026): https://www.service-public.gouv.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/F14198
- Service Public, usufruct and tax scale (checked 3 July 2026): https://www.service-public.gouv.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/F934
- BOFiP, reunion of usufruct on the usufructuary's death: https://bofip.impots.gouv.fr/bofip/2214-PGP.html/identifiant=BOI-ENR-DMTG-10-10-10-20-20130708
- BOFiP, article 990 I levy: https://bofip.impots.gouv.fr/bofip/1335-PGP.html/identifiant=BOI-TCAS-AUT-60-20180516 (2018 version, since replaced; the figures cited agree with the DGFiP leaflet of January 2021)
- BOFiP, article 757 B: https://bofip.impots.gouv.fr/bofip/3456-PGP.html/identifiant=BOI-ENR-DMTG-10-10-20-20-20160701
- DGFiP, "Je suis bénéficiaire d'une assurance-vie" (January 2021): https://www.impots.gouv.fr/sites/default/files/media/1_metier/1_particulier/EV/5_patrimoine_logement/522_assurance_vie/je_suis_beneficiaire_d_une_assurance-vie-web.pdf
- CNSA, EHPAD prices in 2024 (1 April 2026): https://www.cnsa.fr/actualites/prix-des-ehpad-en-2024-un-ecart-important-entre-les-chambres-habilitees-laide-sociale-et
- Service Public, APA in a care home (checked 1 June 2026): https://www.service-public.gouv.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/F10009
- Service Public, accommodation social aid (checked 1 January 2026): https://www.service-public.gouv.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/F2444
- Service Public, tax reduction for dependency costs (checked 15 April 2026): https://www.service-public.gouv.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/F17
- Service Public, maintenance obligation towards parents (checked 12 December 2025): https://www.service-public.gouv.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/F2009
- Service Public, support paid to an ascendant (checked 15 April 2026): https://www.service-public.gouv.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/F444
- Assemblée nationale, 2027 finance bill, no. 3210, articles 4 and 6: https://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/dyn/opendata/PRJLANR5L17B3210.html