France–Brazil — Tax Treaty

1The 1971 convention, in force and unamended — and who counts as a resident

A single instrument governs this pair: the convention of 10 September 1971, signed at Brasilia with a protocol forming an integral part of it, in force since 10 May 1972. It was the first double-taxation convention France concluded with a Latin American state, and it stays close to the OECD model of its era. It has never been amended — the text in force today is, on both registries, the text of 1971 — and the multilateral instrument (the anti-abuse rule agreed internationally in 2017 and added to tax treaties since) does not modify it. The authentic texts are French and Portuguese, equally authoritative; this brief quotes the French text.

The convention's scope is deliberately narrow. Article 2 covers, for France, the income tax and the corporation tax, extended to identical or analogous taxes instituted after signature. The administration's commentary, recast on 17 July 2024, reads that extension as covering the CSG, the CRDS and the solidarity levy — income-type charges, all of them. No wealth tax appears anywhere in the instrument or in the administration's list, and §§ 2 and 6 price that silence.

Residence does the sorting. A person taxable in both states is assigned by the cascade of article 4 §2: permanent home first, then centre of vital interests, then habitual abode, then nationality, then mutual agreement. The Conseil d'État applied that cascade to this very convention in 2020, holding that any dwelling durably at a person's disposal counts as a permanent home (16 July 2020, n° 436570) — a Riviera property kept available year-round is such a dwelling. Companies resolve to the state of their effective management (article 4 §3).

On the Brazilian side, this brief states the law at orientation level only: Brazil levies no wealth tax in force, taxes estates and gifts principally through the state-level ITCMD, and organises family transmission around the legítima of its civil code. The verified ground of this brief is the French side and the 1971 convention; the Brazilian reading belongs with the family's Brazilian advisers.

Sources considered: 1971 convention arts. 1, 2, 4 §§2–3; BOI-INT-CVB-BRA (17 July 2024); CE, 16 July 2020, n° 436570. Scope note: treaty text prevails over commentary; both registries re-checked at this edition. Brazilian law is stated for orientation only.

Reviewed as at 10 August 2026 · 1971 convention arts. 1, 2, 4 (art. 2 re-read verbatim); BOI-INT-CVB-BRA (2024 vintage — current); CE n° 436570

2What you pay to buy a property in France, and what it costs you every year

The purchase follows the standard French sequence: offer, pre-sales contract (compromis de vente) with a ten-day cooling-off period, customarily a 10% deposit, conditions precedent, then the deed (acte authentique) before the notaire, who collects the duties and registers title. The notaire is a public officer, not the buyer's counsel; Brazilian buyers typically retain their own advisers in addition. One question is Brazilian rather than French and comes first in time: exchange control and the route by which the funds arrive, settled with the family's bankers before the deed. And because no succession convention exists to reallocate anything later, the ownership-structure questions of § 3 deserve answers before the compromis is signed.

Worked example — the median Mougins villa (€4.3M, the DVF median of the commune):

The notaire itemises duties and émoluments precisely on the actual deed; a new-build VAT regime, furniture carve-outs or mortgage security change the arithmetic. The figures reflect the published scales and are stated for orientation.

The wealth tax — the treaty's silence, priced

Article 964 of the tax code charges an annual tax on real-estate wealth (IFI) above €1,300,000 of taxable assets. For an owner not domiciled in France the base is French property plus the property fraction of any company's shares (article 965, 2°), at the progressive scale of article 977 — 0.5% to 1.5% above €800,000 once the threshold is crossed. The 1971 convention offers nothing to invoke against it: article 2 covers income taxes alone, so the IFI applies to a Brazilian resident's property exactly as the French code writes it. Brazil levies no wealth tax in force, so the charge is not doubled — and it is not softened either. The contrast within this collection makes the point: a German owner moving to France holds a renewable five-year treaty shield for non-French assets (1959 convention, article 19 §6); a Brazilian owner moving to France holds only the domestic rule of article 964-1° — five years of French-assets-only taxation after a move abroad of five years — which France may amend at any time.

Worked example — the IFI in year one on the median Mougins villa (€4.3M, the commune's DVF median; held directly, no debt): the scale of article 977 produces €28,690 for the year — 0.67% of the property's value, an annual cost of carry. Acquisition debt reduces the base under article 974 (§ 3); a second French property raises it.

Recurring charges follow the property: the annual local property tax (taxe foncière) at communal rates; for furnished second homes in designated high-demand areas (zone tendue) — the marquee Riviera communes among them — a possible surcharge (surtaxe) voted by the commune; and the annual occupancy declaration required of all owners. These rates are communal and year-specific; this brief re-verifies them at each edition rather than freezing them.

Our agency prepares a free valuation for owners at valuation.elenaagueeva.com. An agent contacts you within 48 hours to arrange a visit.

It rests on the same official records a French property valuer (expert immobilier) works from: the government's register of recorded sale prices, the cadastre, and the planning permits granted on the parcel. The agent then visits to appraise the view, the garden, and the quality of the construction and the finishes. The valuation report (avis de valeur) is produced within 48 hours of the visit.

The same figure carries your French filings. Wealth tax, the 3% company tax and gift duty are all declared at the property's market value. The law takes that value from your own detailed estimate (articles 761 and 973 of the tax code), and asks no particular valuer to produce it. A court-appointed expert (expert judiciaire) belongs to litigation, not to a declaration. If the administration challenges your figure, a dated, written valuation resting on comparable sales is what supports it.

The first valuation of a property is free for its owner or seller. A repeat valuation of the same property, or one commissioned by a family office, a bank or another adviser for a client, is a billable engagement — ask us for terms.

Sources considered: CGI arts. 964 (incl. 1°, al. 2), 965, 977, 1418; 1971 convention art. 2; 1959 France–Germany convention art. 19 §6 (the contrast). Scope note: costs follow the published scales and are itemised on your deed; communal rates are re-checked at each edition.

Reviewed as at 10 August 2026 · CGI arts. 964–965, 977; 1971 convention art. 2 (income taxes only — re-read verbatim); cost scales stated for orientation

3Five ways to own a French property, and what follows from each

A holding vehicle answers seven questions, of which tax is one, and rarely the decisive one.

For a Brazilian owner the analysis carries one organising fact: with no succession convention and a treaty confined to income taxes, French law reads the property through a property-rich company at every point that matters — the holding vehicle changes the paperwork, rarely the outcome.

Borrowing against the property — what the code anticipates

The financing conversation runs here as it does elsewhere on this coast: a loan from the buyer's bank, secured on a pledged portfolio, so the liquidity stays invested while the debt reduces the taxable base. The mechanics are lawful and the code expects them. Acquisition debt owed to a bank is deductible from the IFI base (article 974), and financial assets sit outside that base. Three limits apply. A loan repaying capital only at term is treated as if it were being repaid gradually, the deduction declining over the loan's life — by one twentieth a year where no term is fixed. Where taxable property exceeds €5M and debts exceed 60% of its value, the excess is deductible only as to half, unless the borrower shows the loan was not mainly for tax. And the debt must be real — actually drawn, actually serviced, at market terms; routed through an SCI's shareholder account, it no longer reduces the taxable value of the shares (article 973). For a Brazilian owner the deduction matters more than for most, because no treaty window will ever suspend the IFI: leverage moderates the tax in its early years and fades by design. Currency usually dominates the interest rate on this pair — a facility raised in euros against Brazilian income is a treasury decision before it is a tax one, settled with the lender and the French tax lawyer together, before the offer.

Sources considered: CGI arts. 965, 973–974, 990 D–990 E, 990 J, 1649 AB, 750 ter; 1971 convention art. 13. Scope note: structures are questions for analysis, not recommendations — settled with counsel in France and in Brazil.

Reviewed as at 10 August 2026 · CGI arts. 965, 973–974, 990 D–E, 990 J, 1649 AB; 1971 convention art. 13

4What you pay when you sell

France taxes first, and on this point the 1971 convention is explicit: article 13 §1 makes gains from the sale of immovable property — or of shares or comparable rights in a company whose assets are principally immovable property — taxable in the state where the property is situated. The Conseil d'État has read that article twice in recent years, confirming that France taxes where the property stands and that this does not stop the country of residence taxing with a credit (11 December 2020, n° 440307; 14 April 2022, n° 455943).

For a Brazilian-resident seller the French charge runs under CGI article 244 bis A. The taxable gain shrinks with time: an allowance of 6% for each year of ownership beyond the fifth and 4% for the twenty-second (article 150 VC), the 19% income-tax component (article 200 B) extinguishing after 22 years. Taxable gains above €50,000 bear the progressive surcharge of article 1609 nonies G, which reaches 6% at the prices this market transacts.

Worked example — the duration clock, per €1,000,000 of gross gain:

The social levies apply in addition until the thirtieth year of ownership — and at the full rate. The reduced 7.5% solidarity levy is confined to sellers within the European social-security coordination who are not charged to a French scheme (CSS article L. 136-7; CGI article 235 ter); a Brazilian-affiliated seller stands outside that coordination and pays the contributions at their full combined rate, 17.2% as the schedules now stand. And Brazil sits outside the EU and the EEA, so the seller must in principle appoint an accredited tax representative (représentant fiscal accrédité) for the filing — dispensed automatically where the price does not exceed €150,000 per seller, or where the duration allowances have extinguished both tax and levies.

Brazil then answers under its own law, and the convention organises rather than prevents that answer: under article 22 §1, where a Brazilian resident's income is taxed in France in accordance with the convention, Brazil grants a credit equal to the French tax, within the limit of its own tax on that income. Since the commentary of 17 July 2024, the CSG, the CRDS and the solidarity levy sit expressly within the convention's scope — a point of real value at these prices, because the levies France collects on a gain are treaty-covered taxes; how Brazil returns the credit is a question for Brazilian counsel. Selling the shares of a property-rich company instead of the property changes the buyer pool and the deed, not France's right to tax: article 13 reaches both in the same sentence.

If you leave France after selling: the exit tax

The charge is narrower than its name suggests. France's exit tax (article 167 bis) reaches only people domiciled in France for six of the ten years before departure, and only their unrealised gains on securities — above €800,000 in value, or holdings of 50% or more of a company's profits. A property already sold has settled its own tax under the regimes above, and the proceeds are not within the charge. Shares of a family SCI kept under the ordinary income-tax regime stay within the real-estate regime (article 150 UB) and outside the exit tax; a company that has opted for corporation tax changes the classification, and the option belongs on any pre-departure checklist. Where the charge does apply, payment is generally deferred, and the assessment lapses where the securities are still held two years after departure — five where the portfolio exceeded €2.57M — or upon return to France.

Sources considered: 1971 convention arts. 13 §1 (re-read verbatim), 22 §1; CE n° 440307, n° 455943; CGI arts. 150 UB, 150 VC, 167 bis, 200 B, 235 ter, 244 bis A, 1609 nonies G; CSS art. L. 136-7; BOI-RFPI-PVINR-30-20. Scope note: allowances follow the statutory scales; the base is itemised on the deed.

Reviewed as at 10 August 2026 · 1971 convention arts. 13, 22; CE n° 440307, n° 455943; CGI arts. 150 VC, 200 B, 235 ter, 244 bis A, 1609 nonies G

5Renting before you buy, and renting your property out

Renting before you buy

A rental year before purchase remains the classic first step, and it carries one caution worth stating plainly: French tax domicile (article 4 B) turns on the location of your household, your main place of stay and the centre of your professional and economic interests — none of which defers to a lease. A Riviera property that becomes the family's effective home can establish French residence, with worldwide consequences, before any purchase. Where both states claim you, the cascade of article 4 §2 decides, beginning with the permanent home — and the Conseil d'État reads any dwelling durably at your disposal as one (n° 436570). The choice between furnished seasonal rentals and the one-to-three-year civil lease sets your exit flexibility; match it to the trial's real purpose.

Renting your property out

French-source rent of a non-resident — furnished rentals included — is taxed at a minimum of 20% up to the second-bracket ceiling and 30% above it, unless you demonstrate a lower worldwide effective rate (article 197 A). The convention agrees: article 6 attributes income from immovable property to the state where the property stands, whatever the mode of exploitation, renting out included. The social levies apply in addition, at the full rate for a Brazilian-affiliated owner — the reduced lane does not extend to Brazilian affiliation. On the Brazilian side the credit machinery of article 22 §1 answers: Brazil taxes under its own law and credits the French tax within the limit of its own — the levies themselves inside the treaty's scope since July 2024.

Sources considered: CGI arts. 4 B, 197 A, 235 ter; 1971 convention arts. 4 §2, 6, 22 §1. Scope note: treatment turns on the form of exploitation and on affiliation, both questions of fact.

Reviewed as at 10 August 2026 · CGI arts. 4 B, 197 A; 1971 convention arts. 4 §2, 6, 22 §1

6At death and on a gift, French law alone — no convention coordinates

France has concluded succession conventions with only some forty states, and Brazil is not among them: both registries carry a single France–Brazil instrument, the income convention of 1971. French territoriality therefore applies without restriction, on the architecture of article 750 ter. France taxes the property at death and on a gift because it stands in France, whoever the deceased was and wherever the heirs live; shares of an unlisted company principally holding French property count as French assets to the same effect. Where the deceased was French-domiciled, French duty reaches the worldwide estate; and where an heir has been French-domiciled for six of the ten years before the transmission, the same worldwide reach applies through the heir — a clock worth watching in families whose children study or settle in France. In the worldwide cases, the unilateral credit of article 784 A sets foreign duty paid on non-French assets against the French charge; for the property itself there is nothing to credit — French duty is simply due. Whether Brazil's state-level ITCMD also reaches the transmission is a question for Brazilian counsel, and with no treaty to coordinate the two charges, the sequencing belongs in the estate plan, not in the probate.

Where French duty applies, the scale is that of article 777: progressive to 45% in the direct line beyond €1.8M per share, after the €100,000 per-child allowance of article 779, with the surviving spouse exempt in succession. Siblings are taxed at 35% and 45%, unrelated takers at 60%.

Forced heirship on both sides — the pair's quiet alignment

Before either state levies duty, the civil law decides who inherits, and here the pair is more comfortable than most. French law reserves a fixed share for the children — half with one child, two thirds with two, three quarters with three or more (Code civil, articles 912 and 913) — and reduces gifts that encroach on it. Brazilian law reserves in the same spirit: the legítima assigns half of the estate to the necessary heirs — stated here at orientation level for Brazilian counsel to refine. Under EU Regulation 650/2012, which France applies whatever the nationality, a Brazilian national habitually resident in France may elect Brazilian law for the succession as a whole; because both systems reserve, the election reorganises the computation rather than the principle, and it moves none of the tax above to another country. The compensatory rule of article 913, third paragraph — which allows children to recover their reserved share from French assets — is aimed at laws with no reserve at all, which a Brazilian election does not present.

Giving your children the ownership now, and keeping the use for life (démembrement)

The structure commonly proposed alongside the loan divides ownership itself: you keep the usufruct — the use of the property and its income for life — and gift the bare ownership to the next generation. The code values the split by age: bare ownership is worth 60% of full value where the usufruct holder is between 61 and 70, and 70% between 71 and 80 (article 669); the gift bears duty on that fraction alone, at today's value, and the reunification at death is not a further taxable transmission. Article 751 sets the conditions — a notarised gift, made more than three months before death, valued on the article 669 scale — and article 968 keeps the full value in your own IFI base: your wealth tax does not move. With no gift convention, France taxes the French gift under its own rules and the Brazilian consequences of the same act follow Brazilian law alone — two analyses to align, with counsel on each side, before the deed.

Sources considered: CGI arts. 669, 750 ter, 751, 777, 779, 784 A, 968; Code civil arts. 912, 913, 920; EU Regulation 650/2012; both-registry succession-convention check July 2026. Scope note: the Brazilian side (ITCMD, legítima) is stated for orientation and belongs with Brazilian counsel.

Reviewed as at 10 August 2026 · CGI arts. 669, 750 ter, 751, 777, 779, 784 A, 968; Code civil arts. 912–913, 920; EU Reg. 650/2012

7The eight questions Brazilian owners ask most

Does a Brazilian resident pay French wealth tax on a Riviera property?

Yes, once French real-estate assets exceed €1.3M net, held directly or through the property fraction of company shares (article 964). The 1971 convention covers income taxes only and says nothing about wealth tax, so the IFI applies by French domestic law with nothing to invoke against it. The only softening is domestic: the new-resident window of article 964-1° (five years on French assets only, after five years abroad) — a rule of the code, which France may amend, where a German buyer holds the equivalent as a treaty right.

Who taxes the gain when a Brazilian resident sells a French property?

France, as the state where the property stands — article 13 covers gains on French property and on shares of property-rich companies alike, as the Conseil d'État confirmed in 2020 and 2022. The charge runs under article 244 bis A with the duration allowances, the income-tax component extinguishing after 22 years; Brazil may also tax under its own law and credits the French tax (article 22 §1).

Is there a France–Brazil succession convention?

No — the 1971 income convention is the only instrument between the two states. French succession and gift duty applies on its own territoriality (article 750 ter): the property and property-rich shares are always French assets; the worldwide estate is reached where the deceased was French-domiciled or an heir has been French-resident six of the last ten years; and the credit of article 784 A covers only foreign duty on non-French assets.

Can a Brazilian family choose Brazilian law for a French succession?

Under EU Regulation 650/2012, a Brazilian national habitually resident in France may elect Brazilian law for the succession as a whole. The election changes less than a common-law client would expect: French law reserves half to three quarters for the children (Code civil, articles 912–913), Brazilian law reserves half through the legítima, and which country taxes what is unaffected either way.

Is rental income from France taxed if the owner lives in Brazil?

Yes, by France first: article 6 attributes income from immovable property to the state where it stands, and France applies the minimum-rate regime of article 197 A — no less than 20%, and 30% above the second bracket — with social levies in addition. Brazil taxes under its own law and credits the French tax within the limit of its own (article 22 §1).

Do Brazilian residents pay the full French social levies?

Yes. The reduced 7.5% solidarity levy is confined to persons within the European social-security coordination who are not charged to a French scheme (CSS article L. 136-7; CGI article 235 ter); a Brazilian-affiliated owner pays the CSG and the CRDS in addition — 17.2% in aggregate at today's rates. Since July 2024 the administration treats those levies as taxes within the convention, which matters for the Brazilian credit.

Does a French exit tax apply after selling and leaving?

Rarely, and never on the property itself. The charge (article 167 bis) reaches only people French-domiciled for six of the ten years before departure, and only their unrealised gains on securities — above €800,000, or holdings of 50% or more of a company's profits. The sold property and its proceeds stand outside, as do family-SCI shares kept under the ordinary income-tax regime (article 150 UB). Where it applies, payment is generally deferred and the assessment lapses after two years — five above €2.57M — or upon return to France.

Does a bank loan reduce French wealth tax on a Riviera property?

Yes. Acquisition debt owed to a bank is deductible from the IFI base (article 974), and pledged financial assets sit outside that base. The deduction is bounded: interest-only loans are treated as if repaid gradually each year, and where property exceeds €5M and debt exceeds 60% of its value, the excess counts only as to half unless a mainly non-tax purpose is shown. For a Brazilian owner the deduction carries particular weight — no treaty window will ever suspend the tax.

Sources considered: CGI arts. 964, 974, 197 A, 235 ter, 167 bis, 150 UB, 750 ter, 784 A, 244 bis A; 1971 convention arts. 6, 13, 22 §1; Code civil arts. 912–913; EU Regulation 650/2012. Scope note: these answers condense the sections above and inherit their scope notes.

Reviewed as at 10 August 2026

8The court decisions, the sources and the sales figures

Four decisions of the Conseil d'État, and what each settled

16 July 2020, n° 436570 — residence under this convention: any dwelling durably at a person's disposal counts as a permanent home in the article 4 §2 cascade. 11 December 2020, n° 440307 — article 13 §1 read verbatim: gains on French property and on shares of property-rich companies are taxable where the property stands. 14 April 2022, n° 455943 — article 13 does not exclude the residence state from also taxing; the credit of article 22 answers, social levies included. 26 July 2006, n° 284930 — the forfaitary credits of article 22 §2 d require the income to have effectively borne Brazilian tax; the administration's 2024 commentary consolidates the condition.

What changed, and what our agency is watching

The instrument stands as signed: verified in July 2026 against both registries — the French official presentation and Brazil's federal register (Decreto n° 70.506 of 1972) — with no avenant and no modification by the multilateral instrument. The file's lead movement is doctrinal: on 17 July 2024 the administration recast BOI-INT-CVB-BRA, stating expressly that the identical-or-analogous clause of article 2 covers the CSG, the CRDS and the solidarity levy. Watch items for the next edition: any announcement of a renegotiation of the 1971 text; annual finance-law movements on the IFI and transfer duties; communal surcharge votes on the Riviera arc; and Brazilian legislation on the taxation of estates and gifts. The authentic texts are French and Portuguese, equally authoritative; the corpus holds the French official text at statutory force, and the Portuguese authentic text is not yet held — an open item our agency records rather than leaves implicit.

The sales figures behind this brief

Seen from Brazil, the Riviera's €3M+ villa market is best introduced through Mougins — the hill village above Cannes whose gastronomy, golf and gated hillside quarters have long drawn international ownership. Mougins recorded 167 villa sales of €3M and above for €967M, at a €4.3M median and a €34.5M ceiling, 76 of them for €453M in the past 36 months. Cannes and its hills contributed 306 sales for €2,066M at a €4.9M median; the Saint-Tropez peninsula remains the largest €3M+ register on the coast, at 1,006 sales for €7,049M.

Source: DVF (« Demandes de Valeurs Foncières », DGFiP), villa sales ≥ €3M, 2014–2025, duplicate estate records removed — the same method as the published Riviera Intelligence pages. Register complete to 31 December 2025. The ownership aggregates this line compiles from public registers record, at this edition, no position held from Brazil across the 20 Riviera communes studied; the figures refresh with each edition.

How this brief was checked, and its limits

Legal statements are verified against the Chiron Legal Corpus and re-checked against the official sources at each edition. The review of 10 August 2026 covered the consolidated CGI and Code civil articles cited, the 1971 convention in the official French presentation (arts. 2 and 13 §1 re-read verbatim at this edition), the administration's commentary in its 2024 vintage, the non-resident capital-gains series, and the four Conseil d'État decisions above. Brazilian domestic law — the legítima, the ITCMD, the absence of a wealth tax in force — is stated at orientation level from secondary sources and never carries a legal conclusion on its own. Items that depend on the file — communal rates, the levy component rates behind the 17.2% aggregate, the Brazilian return of the article 22 credit, the deed-level gain base — are stated at mechanism level and verified case by case. Market data: DVF (DGFiP), villa sales ≥ €3M, duplicate estate records removed, register complete to 31 December 2025.

This brief sets out published law and public transaction data. It is research, not advice on your own situation: your residence history, your matrimonial regime, the funding route and your chain of title all change the answer. For an actual purchase or sale, our agency brings in the French tax lawyer and the notaire you need, and handles the sale or purchase itself.

Sources considered: CE n° 284930, n° 436570, n° 440307, n° 455943; BOI-INT-CVB-BRA; 1971 convention final clause. Scope note: decision texts read; DVF register, duplicate estate records removed.

Reviewed as at 10 August 2026 · decision texts read; DVF register, duplicate estate records removed

Further intelligence

The Riviera villa market — the coast-wide €3M+ index

Riviera property tax & relocation — the incoming buyer's primer

France–Belgium — the convention pair

France–Nordics — the convention pair

Edição em português