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French Legality - Can I give my house to my son?


charnizay

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[quote user="charnizay"]Hello - Can I give my French house to my son? If this were possible then I would like to do it to cut my costs. My son is willing to pay all taxes but only if he "owns" the house. [:)]

Regards Charnizay

[/quote]

Hi,

     You certainly can , but to do it legally you must go throgh a notaire , and pay certain fees ( not excessive) .   Provided you have not previously given large gifts to your son and the house is worth less than 159 325€ your son will have no gift tax to pay.  The usual way to do this is to give your son legal title but retain the life-interest for yourself ( and leave it to your wife , if appropriate) . This way, only the value of the title is taxable and it is always less than the full value of the house (for example age 51-60 it's 50%).

     Find a good english-fluent notaire and be advised by him (or her).

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[quote user="Albert the InfoGipsy"]Yes, but it'll cost you. My parents in law gifted their house to their 3 children and it cost something like 3-4% of the house value in Notaire fees, taxes etc. Presumably it's at the same rate as if they'd sold it at the current market value.[/quote]

Hi,

    The fees for a donation are quite a lot less than for a sale , see here;

de 0 à

6.500 €

5 %

de

6.500 €

à 

17.000 €

 

2,0625 %

de

17.000 €

à

60.000 €

 

1,375 %

plus de

60.000 €

 

1,03125 %

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[quote user="Albert the InfoGipsy"]Yes, but it'll cost you. My parents in law gifted their house to their 3 children and it cost something like 3-4% of the house value in Notaire fees, taxes etc. Presumably it's at the same rate as if they'd sold it at the current market value.[/quote]

Hi,

    The fees for a donation are quite a lot less than for a sale , see here;

de 0 à

6.500 €

5 %

de

6.500 €

à 

17.000 €

 

2,0625 %

de

17.000 €

à

60.000 €

 

1,375 %

plus de

60.000 €

 

1,03125 %

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My FIL certainly had to fork over something of the order of 3-4%. That was for a donation to their three children for a couple in their 80s. As I understand it the house is in the low hundreds of thousands. I was not personally involved; for family reasons spouses did not attend

As my wife puts it: 'He uses the best notaire in town, so I trust him.'

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My friend has three kids and was giving a house to her daughter. So I assume it can be done. Maybe with consultation with the other children, I never asked. My friends have several houses though, so there was plenty left for the others anyway.
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Hello again - I had not considered the inheritance issue but I guess that with the signed approval of the other child things could go ahead? I have no desire to disinherit any of my children although I think it must appear that way. I may have to take these steps to alleviate present financial hardship[+o(].

Would any of you know if there are any other ways that I could cut the running costs of a maison secondaire? I think that I can remove furniture and avow to the Mairie that the house is empty, cut the water, electricity, and internet/telephone services - but is one still liable for other taxes?

Regards Charnizay

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I think that you can probably get down to the bare minimum of taxes fonçieres, insurance is not actually obligatory but i would imagine most people would consider it  wise nonetheless.

I have been in a situation of hardship for a few years albeit planned, I managed to negotiate down my taxes by about 3/4 due to most of the property being uninhabitable during the renovations, initially it was in the form of  a dégrévement of 4/5ths for the first year which they subsequently told me they had no right to do, then through adding pressure that if they had done it once then they must continue as the situation was unchanged I sat down with the chef de la division and she changed the valeur locative from €3900 to €1600, this reduced my taxe d'habitation by 62% and the taxes fonçieres by 10%.

I wrote the above to illustrate that you have more to gain from not being imposable for taxe d'habitation by virtue of the property being unoccupied on the &st of January than by any renegotiation however if you were to render the property uninhabitable by the removal of the kitchen sink you could save a little more but as my figures above show the taxes fonçieres are not much influenced by the condition of a building.

Good luck to you, if you dont get any definitive advice on here I think you should check with a notaire re the gift to your son, I realise that you are not trying to disinherit the other family members but I have a nagging feeling that you may cause problems for your children in later years.

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[quote user="charnizay"]Hello again - I had not considered the inheritance issue but I guess that with the signed approval of the other child things could go ahead? I have no desire to disinherit any of my children although I think it must appear that way. I may have to take these steps to alleviate present financial hardship[+o(].

Would any of you know if there are any other ways that I could cut the running costs of a maison secondaire? I think that I can remove furniture and avow to the Mairie that the house is empty, cut the water, electricity, and internet/telephone services - but is one still liable for other taxes?

Regards Charnizay

[/quote]

Hi,

 It's not clear whether you are french resident but I assume your children are not .  If the house is your only asset in France , you can give 2/3 of the title to your son and 1/3 to your daughter.  If your daughter  agrees, she can give her part of the title to her brother (15 932€ tax -free) then 35%.  Alternatively you and your two children can sign a "acte de famille"  before the notaire where she agrees to pass up her rights inthe house. This does involve you all being present at the notaires--however, I believe  there are notaires practicing in the UK. If you contact Siddalls International , they may be able to put you in touch with one.

 

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