Structuring your French Property Purchase

The manner in which you decide to purchase your French property, and in some cases whether you decide to purchase a French property at all, will be determined by French tax and succession issues. Some of these issues pertain not solely to French tax and succession matters but also cross jurisdictionally in that the interaction between French law and English law needs to be considered, i.e. the question of which law applies to what asset and when.

Taxation for Owners of English and French Property 

We are able to advise you on French tax and succession issues and give you an overview as to their interaction with English tax and succession issues. However for more detailed information concerning solely English tax and succession issues, we suggest that you refer back to your accountant and/or a specialist UK tax Lawyer.

The manner in which you structure your French property purchase will also depend on your own individual circumstances such as whether you are single, married, separated, divorced, or widowed. It will further depend upon the extent of your assets and where they are located. Additional considerations include whether you intend to remain English resident and/or domiciled or may potentially become French resident and/or domiciled.

Residency applies to where you live and domicile is generally more relevant to what happens to your estate once you pass away. Your domicile can also particularly in the UK have tax implications whilst you are still alive. In particular there can be advantages in the UK where you reside in the UK but are not deemed to be domiciled in the UK.

All the above considerations will also to a significant extent depend on whether you are buying your French property for use as a secondary holiday home, secondary property being an investment, whether you are moving to France to live or whether you are moving to France to retire.