France–India — Tax Treaty

1One convention with a protocol that changes the numbers — and an amendment waiting to take effect

The convention of 29 September 1992, signed at Paris, was ratified by law 94-321, published by decree 94-670 and entered into force on 1 August 1994, replacing an earlier text of 26 March 1969. It took effect in France for income from 1 January 1995 and for fortune held on that date, and in India for fiscal years from 1 April 1995. Its French, Hindi and English texts are ALL THREE equally authentic — no other relationship in this collection has three — and our agency reads the French and English versions.

Article 2 lists what it covers: on the French side the income tax, the corporation tax and the French wealth tax; on the Indian side the income tax with its surcharge, the surtax and the wealth tax. A second paragraph carries the coverage forward to identical or similar taxes introduced later, which is how the current French wealth tax stands inside a 1992 text. The CSG and the CRDS are NOT named. Some conventions in this collection name them expressly; this one does not, and this brief therefore asserts no treaty coverage for the social levies anywhere.

The protocol is part of the convention, and it moves rates

This pair has a protocol, it is integral to the convention, and reading only the articles produces wrong numbers. Its most-favoured-nation clause means that where India later agrees a lower rate with another country, that lower rate can reach this convention too: the dividend rate through India's conventions with Germany and with Slovenia, the interest rate through its convention with the United States. So the rate written in the article is a starting point rather than an answer, and a rate question on this pair is settled by reading the article, the protocol and those later treaties together. It does not touch the property itself — the clause reaches rates on flows, not which country taxes an immovable.

Who counts as a resident

Article 4 §2 runs the familiar cascade where both states claim a person: permanent home, centre of vital interests, habitual abode, nationality, then agreement between the two administrations. French domestic law asks its own prior question through CGI article 4 B, on the family's foyer, the principal place of stay and the centres of professional and economic interest. The Indian side runs on a day-count test with a transitional status for a returning resident, stated at orientation level only.

What the multilateral instrument changed

The BEPS multilateral instrument took effect for France on 1 January 2019 and for India on 1 October 2019. It rewrote the preamble, added the principal-purpose test under which a treaty advantage can be refused where obtaining it was a principal object of an arrangement, and rewrote article 14 §4 into its 365-day property-rich form, naming partnership and trust interests by type. It did not reach article 24 on fortune, and it did not create any succession coverage. The administration's commentary on this pair predates all of it, so where the two diverge this brief follows the treaty texts.

An amendment is signed and is not in force

On 18 February 2026 the two states signed an amendment at New Delhi. The French administration publishes it with an express notice that it must still go through parliamentary approval and ratification and is not yet in force. It replaces the preamble and articles 5, 11, 12, 13, 14, 25 and 28. Three things in it matter to an owner. The new article 14 keeps the rule that France taxes gains on French property and keeps the 365-day property-rich test, but DROPS the 10% floor now in §5 — so gains on shares of a French company would become taxable in France whatever the size of the holding. Point 10 of the protocol grandfathers business-use immovable property for holdings acquired before 1 April 2026. And the amendment's gains and permanent-establishment articles are deferred by two years from the end of the year in which it enters force. Article 24 on fortune is untouched. When it will take effect cannot be predicted, and this brief does not guess: the position is restated at each edition.

Sources considered: 1992 convention and its integral protocol (official consolidation with the multilateral instrument) arts. 2, 4, 24, 30 and testimonium; the amendment signed 18 February 2026, not in force; BOI-ANNX-000306 (29 April 2026), India row read verbatim; BOI-INT-CVB-IND — texts read. Scope note: Indian domestic law is stated at orientation level only and never carries a conclusion; the ratification calendar of the 2026 amendment is unknowable and is reported as such.

Reviewed as at 11 August 2026 · 1992 convention arts. 2, 4 + protocol; the 2026 amendment (signed, not in force); BOI-ANNX-000306 — texts read

2What you pay to buy a property in France — and the ceiling that shapes the purchase

Buying is priced by French law and takes no notice of where the buyer lives. On the Cannes median of €4.9M, the transfer duties at 5.81% come to €284,526 and the notaire's scaled fee to roughly €61,250 — about €345,776 before any survey, agency or financing cost.

The constraint that comes first on this pair

For a buyer resident in India, the binding question is not the French tax but how much money may leave India. The liberalised remittance scheme allows US$250,000 per resident individual per financial year, and property abroad is inside the scheme. Against a median of €4.9M that is roughly two decades of one person's ceiling. So a resident-funded purchase on this coast is a multi-year, multi-member programme rather than a single transfer — and family consolidation works only where each member complies in their own right and the relatives are co-owners of what is bought. The scheme is closed to companies, undivided families and trusts. A non-resident Indian sits outside it entirely. Collection at source on outward remittances applies and its thresholds have moved repeatedly, so it is stated at orientation level and re-verified at each edition. All of this is settled with advisers in India before an offer is made, not after.

The wealth tax, confirmed by the treaty rather than left to domestic law

Above €1,300,000 of taxable French real-estate assets, CGI article 964 institutes the annual wealth tax; for a person not domiciled in France the base takes in property located in France and the fraction of any company's shares that stands for such property (article 965, 2°). On most relationships in this collection that charge rests on French domestic law alone. Here it rests on the treaty as well: article 2 names the French wealth tax, article 24 §1 makes French immovable property taxable in France, and §2 does the same for shares of a company whose value comes principally, directly or indirectly, from French property. Article 25 §2 a would give India a credit for it, capped at the Indian tax — but India abolished its own wealth tax in 2015 (orientation), so that credit is machinery with nothing currently to serve. The value declared each year is the owner's own detailed estimate of real market value (CGI article 973 I), which is why a dated written valuation resting on comparable sales is worth holding.

Debt, and what it does to the base

Acquisition debt owed to a bank is deductible from the wealth base under CGI article 974, while financial assets sit outside that base altogether. 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 the debt exceeds 60% of that value, the excess counts only for half. And debt owed to the owner's own company or family is admitted only on proof that the loan is genuine and normal. On this pair the financing question and the remittance ceiling are one conversation, not two.

The local charges, and the 3% tax

The annual local property tax (taxe foncière) follows the deed at communal rates; a surcharge can apply to furnished second homes in tension zones. Separately, CGI articles 990 D to 990 E charge 3% of market value each year on entities holding French property, with exemption routes that are a filing obligation rather than a favour: an entity that discloses its holders, or undertakes to on request, is outside the charge — and the exemption is lost by a missed filing rather than by any change in the facts.

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: 1992 convention arts. 2, 24 §§1 and 2, 25 §2 a; CGI arts. 964, 965, 973 I, 974, 990 D–990 E; the notarial scale; the Reserve Bank of India's published scheme rules (verified 20 July 2026); DVF (the French government's transaction register) — texts read. Scope note: the remittance scheme, the collection at source and the Indian wealth-tax abolition are stated at orientation level; the collection-at-source figures in particular have moved repeatedly and are re-verified at each edition.

Reviewed as at 11 August 2026 · 1992 convention arts. 2, 24, 25; CGI arts. 964, 965, 973 I, 974, 990 D–990 E — texts read; DVF medians

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

French law prices each route on its own terms. On this pair the share-sale column is the one that is about to move, because a signed amendment widens it.

Direct ownership

Simplicity, and France taxes it at every stage. On a sale France taxes as the country where the property stands (article 14 §1) and India credits the French tax under article 25 §2 a, capped at its own. Each year the wealth tax applies with the treaty confirming it. At death French duty attaches to the property and no Indian assessment answers it.

A French property company (SCI)

The wealth tax reaches the property fraction of the shares in any event (article 965, 2°), and article 24 §2 confirms it at treaty level for a company drawing its value principally from French property, directly or indirectly. At death, CGI article 750 ter, 2° counts the holding as if it were held directly where the deceased, with spouse, ascendants, descendants or siblings, holds more than half the interests.

Selling the shares, and the floor that is about to disappear

Two rules reach a share sale today, and they work differently. Article 14 §4, as rewritten by the multilateral instrument, taxes gains in France where the shares — or interests in a partnership or a trust, named by type — drew more than half their value directly or indirectly from French property at any time in the 365 days before the sale; the size of the holding is irrelevant to it. Article 14 §5 separately reaches gains on a holding of 10% or more in a company resident of a state. THE SIGNED 2026 AMENDMENT DROPS THAT 10% FLOOR, so once it is in force a gain on shares of a French company would be taxable in France whatever the holding, with business-use property grandfathered for holdings acquired before 1 April 2026 under point 10 of the protocol. Its gains article is then deferred a further two years from the end of the year the amendment enters force. Any plan that depends on staying under 10% is checked against this before it is built, and again when the amendment lands. The principal-purpose test sits over any arrangement whose main object was the treaty advantage.

An Indian or other foreign company

The 3% annual charge of articles 990 D to 990 E applies, with the disclosure route out. French corporation tax reaches French property income, and the shares stay within article 14. For an India-resident shareholder of a foreign property company, India's own rules on holding assets abroad are examined in India — this brief does not read them.

A trust, and splitting ownership between generations

French law meets trusts on its own terms: the trustee reports under CGI article 1649 AB, assets within scope enter the settlor's taxable estate or that of a beneficiary treated as the settlor, and the levy of article 990 J answers a failure to declare. Article 14 §4 names trust interests, so a sale of them is taxed by France on the same test. Giving the bare ownership while keeping the use for life is a French civil mechanism whose values are fixed by statute — CGI article 669 by the giver's age, article 751 where both halves are held in one family — and on this pair it runs on French mechanics with no Indian counterpart charge to coordinate with.

Sources considered: 1992 convention arts. 14 §§1, 4 and 5, 24 §2, 25 §2 a; the 2026 amendment (signed, not in force), new article 14 and protocol point 10; CGI arts. 750 ter, 965, 990 D–990 E, 990 J, 1649 AB, 669, 751 — texts read. Scope note: structures are presented for analysis, never as recommendations; India's rules on holding assets abroad are not read here.

Reviewed as at 11 August 2026 · 1992 convention art. 14; the 2026 amendment (signed, not in force); CGI arts. 750 ter, 965, 990 D–E, 990 J, 1649 AB, 669, 751

4What you pay when you sell — and the representative the sale needs

France taxes the gain because the property stands in France (article 14 §1), and CGI article 244 bis A charges it: 19% income tax, plus the social levies at the full 17.2%, plus the surcharge of article 1609 nonies G on the larger gains. The taxable gain falls with holding time under CGI article 150 VC — the income-tax component clearing at 22 years, the social-levy component at 30. Works and acquisition costs enter the calculation on evidence, which is the practical argument for keeping invoices from the first year of ownership.

The social levies, on domestic rules only

The reduced 7.5% solidarity levy belongs to persons affiliated to a social-security scheme within the European coordination regulation. Indian affiliation sits outside it, so the full 17.2% applies. Note what this brief does NOT say: article 2 of this convention does not name the CSG or the CRDS, unlike some others in this collection, so no treaty coverage of the social levies is claimed here in either direction. The levies are answered on the French domestic rules alone.

The accredited representative

Because India sits outside the EU and the EEA, the sale ordinarily requires an accredited tax representative (représentant fiscal) to stand behind the filing and the payment (article 244 bis A, IV). The administration's instruction of 22 January 2025 grants automatic exemptions for sales at €150,000 or less per seller and for sales wholly exempt through the thirty-year clock — thresholds a Riviera sale rarely meets. The deed's notaire ordinarily arranges the appointment.

India then credits, and the money has to travel

Article 25 §2 a gives India the ordinary credit method for the French income and fortune tax, capped at the Indian tax on the same income. Separately from the tax, bringing the proceeds home runs on India's exchange-control rules, and that is settled with advisers there when the sale is planned rather than when it completes.

Leaving France after a sale

France's exit tax (CGI article 167 bis) concerns securities and company rights held on departure by a person leaving French residence after at least six of the previous ten years. It does not reach the property itself and is not triggered by selling one. It is named here because it is the charge most often confused with the property tax on a move; this convention carries no equivalent hook of its own.

Sources considered: 1992 convention arts. 14 §1, 25 §2 a; CGI arts. 244 bis A (incl. IV), 150 VC, 200 B, 1609 nonies G, 167 bis; BOI-RFPI-PVINR-20-20 and -30-20 — texts read. Scope note: no treaty coverage of the CSG or the CRDS is asserted on this pair; India's exchange-control rules on repatriation are stated at orientation level.

Reviewed as at 11 August 2026 · CGI arts. 244 bis A, 150 VC, 200 B, 1609 nonies G, 167 bis; 1992 convention art. 25

5Renting before you buy, and renting your property out

A family often rents on the coast for a season before buying, and the two positions are not symmetrical. As a tenant of a furnished seasonal let, you are a customer: the rent carries no French tax consequence for you, the deposit and inventory are governed by the lease, and the tourist tax is collected by the landlord.

As an owner renting the property out

Article 6 assigns the income to France as the country where the property stands, and France taxing it does not stop India taxing it too. France applies its own rules — the progressive scale with a 20% minimum rate up to the second bracket ceiling and 30% beyond, unless a lower worldwide rate is demonstrated (article 197 A) — and the social levies add their full 17.2% on the domestic rules.

India then answers as the country of residence and relieves by credit under article 25 §2 a, capped at its own tax on that income. An India-resident owner also reports foreign assets on the schedule provided for it in the Indian return; that is an ordinary annual filing, and it belongs on the calendar with the French one.

Furnished renting, and the rules that came with it

Renting furnished is a different French regime from renting unfurnished, with its own thresholds and its own allowances, and short-term seasonal renting on the coast now sits under communal registration and quota rules that vary from one commune to the next. Cannes, Antibes and Saint-Tropez do not answer the same way. The rules bear on the yield rather than on the deed, so they are checked before a purchase made for rental return, not after.

Sources considered: 1992 convention arts. 6 §§1–3, 25 §2 a; CGI art. 197 A; BOI-RFPI-PVINR-20-20 — texts read. Scope note: Indian reporting obligations are stated at orientation level; communal registration rules change by commune and by year.

Reviewed as at 11 August 2026 · 1992 convention arts. 6, 25; CGI art. 197 A

6What happens to the property when you die, or give it away

At death the answer is French, and whole. No succession or gift convention exists between France and India — the administration's treaty list records the relationship for income and fortune only — and India abolished estate duty in 1985 and taxes no inheritance today (orientation). So there is no accumulation to manage and no credit to claim: the French scale is the entire transmission cost.

The French charge

French duty attaches to the property because it stands in France, whatever the owner's domicile, for estates and for lifetime gifts alike, and it reads through interposed companies — a property held through entities in which the deceased or donor, together with spouse, ascendants, descendants or siblings, holds more than half the interests is taxed as if it were held directly (CGI article 750 ter, 2°). The scale of article 777 runs to 45% in the direct line after the allowance of article 779 — €100,000 per child, renewing every fifteen years. Where the deceased was French-domiciled, or an heir has been French-resident for six of the ten years before the transmission, French duty reaches the worldwide estate. The credit of CGI article 784 A operates only in those worldwide cases and only against foreign duty on assets outside France, so it never relieves the French property — and with no Indian death charge there is nothing to credit in any event.

Choosing Indian law can cost the children their share

This is the point on this pair that most often reads backwards. French forced heirship reserves a share of the estate for the children (Code civil articles 912 and 913). European Regulation 650/2012 lets a person choose the law of their nationality to govern the succession, and families usually reach for that election to obtain more freedom. Here it can do the opposite of what is wanted. Indian succession runs on personal laws, and much self-acquired property is freely disposable under them (orientation) — which is precisely the condition on which the compensatory levy of Code civil article 913, al. 3 operates: where the chosen law allows no protective mechanism for the children, a child who is an EU national or resident can be restored their reserved share out of assets located in France. So electing Indian law can TRIGGER the levy rather than escape the reserve. Other personal-law systems, which set fixed shares, sit differently again. This is facts-specific and belongs with counsel on both sides before a will is drafted.

The gift

A gift of the property, or of its bare ownership, bears French gift duty because the property is in France, on the same scales, with the splitting values of article 669 fixed by the giver's age. India charges no gift duty, and a gift between close relatives sits outside its receipts-as-income charge (orientation) — so the splitting mechanics run on French rules with no Indian counterpart to coordinate. The fifteen-year French calendar is the whole planning variable.

Sources considered: CGI arts. 750 ter, 777, 779, 784 A, 669, 751; Code civil arts. 912–913 (incl. 913, al. 3, read verbatim); EU Regulation 650/2012; BOI-ANNX-000306 (29 April 2026) — texts read. Scope note: Indian succession law, the 1985 abolition of estate duty and the receipts charge are stated at orientation level and are questions for counsel in India; civil law runs before tax law in this section.

Reviewed as at 11 August 2026 · CGI arts. 750 ter, 777, 779, 784 A; Code civil arts. 912–913 — texts read; EU Reg. 650/2012

7The eight questions Indian owners ask most

How much can I send from India to buy in France?

US$250,000 per resident individual per financial year under the liberalised remittance scheme, property abroad included. Against a €4.9M Cannes median that is roughly two decades of one person's ceiling, so a resident-funded purchase is planned as a multi-year, multi-member programme. Family consolidation works only where each member complies in their own right and the relatives are co-owners. A non-resident Indian is outside the scheme.

Does an India resident pay French wealth tax on a Riviera property?

Yes above €1.3M, and here the treaty confirms it rather than staying silent: article 2 names the French wealth tax and article 24 §§1 and 2 give France the property and the shares of a property-rich company. India abolished its own wealth tax in 2015, so the charge is one-sided.

Which country taxes the succession?

France, and only France. There is no succession convention, and India ended estate duty in 1985. French duty runs to 45% in the direct line after the €100,000 allowance per child, with family companies counted in.

Should I elect Indian law for my succession?

Not without advice, because on this pair the election can backfire. Where the chosen law leaves the children unprotected — which much self-acquired property under Indian personal law does — the compensatory levy of Code civil article 913, al. 3 can restore a child's reserved share out of French assets. The election can trigger the levy rather than avoid the reserve.

What does the 2026 amendment change for me?

It is signed and NOT in force. When it takes effect it will drop the 10% floor on share gains, so gains on shares of a French company become taxable in France whatever the holding, with business-use property grandfathered for holdings acquired before 1 April 2026. Its gains article is then deferred two more years. It leaves the wealth article alone.

Are the treaty rates in the articles the rates I pay?

Not necessarily. The protocol is integral to this convention and carries a most-favoured-nation clause, so a rate can be cut by what India later agreed with another country. A rate question here is answered from the article, the protocol and those later treaties together.

Do I need a tax representative to sell?

As a rule yes, because India is outside the EU and the EEA. Sales at €150,000 or less per seller and sales wholly exempt through the thirty-year clock are dispensed by the instruction of 22 January 2025.

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

Yes, in France (article 6), on the progressive scale with a 20% minimum rate unless a lower worldwide rate is demonstrated (article 197 A), with the social levies at 17.2% on the domestic rules. India then relieves by credit under article 25 §2 a, capped at its own tax.

Sources considered: 1992 convention arts. 2, 6, 14, 24, 25 + protocol; the 2026 amendment (signed, not in force); CGI arts. 964, 750 ter, 777, 779, 197 A, 244 bis A; Code civil art. 913, al. 3 — texts read. Scope note: these answers condense the sections above and inherit their scope notes.

Reviewed as at 11 August 2026

8The court decisions, the sources and the sales behind this brief

Every legal statement in this brief was checked against the text it comes from, in the Chiron Legal Corpus, at the date on each section stamp. The convention, ITS PROTOCOL and the signed 2026 amendment were all read end to end at this edition.

Why the protocol was read as carefully as the articles

Because on this pair it changes answers. Its most-favoured-nation clause moves rates the convention itself sets, by reference to conventions India signed later with other countries. Across the four relationships migrated in this pass, this is the only one where the protocol carries an operative rule of that kind — the France–Singapore and France–Ireland conventions have no protocol at all, and the France–Canada text carries its weight in amendments instead. Reading only the numbered articles would have produced confident, wrong rates.

An amendment that has been signed and not ratified

The recency check that runs before every edition of these briefs found the amendment of 18 February 2026 on the administration's own site, published with the express notice that it is not in force. Its effect on share gains is significant enough that a family planning around the current 10% floor should know it is scheduled to disappear; its date is not knowable, so no date is given. This section is where the position is restated at each edition until it lands.

What the courts have decided

No reported decision of the Conseil d'État concerns a property, treaty residence or an estate on this relationship. The near-absence of litigation is the observation, and on this pair it is unsurprising: the wealth and succession positions are settled by text rather than contested, and the questions that could be argued sit in the amendment that has not yet taken effect.

The market figures

The sales figures come from DVF, the French government's register of property transactions, covering twelve years. The observatory of ownership our agency maintains records no India-resident position on the canvassed pockets to date: an honest absence rather than a finding, and the column opens with the first recorded position.

What this brief is not

It states the general position on the French side and reads the Indian side at orientation level only — the remittance scheme, the collection at source, the personal laws of succession and the abolitions of estate duty and wealth tax are all reported that way and none of them carries a conclusion here. It is not advice on a particular file, and it does not replace a notaire, a French tax counsel or an adviser in India. Write to us directly for a file-specific reading.

Sources considered: 1992 convention and its integral protocol (official consolidation with the multilateral instrument); the amendment signed 18 February 2026, not in force; BOI-ANNX-000306 (29 April 2026); BOI-INT-CVB-IND; BOI-RFPI-PVINR-20-20 and -30-20; the Reserve Bank of India's published scheme rules; the CGI and Code civil articles cited in each section; DVF. Scope note: the administration's commentary on this pair predates the multilateral instrument, so this brief follows the treaty texts; the collection-at-source figures rest on secondary sources and are hedged accordingly.

Reviewed as at 11 August 2026 · 1992 convention + protocol + the 2026 amendment (signed, not in force); DVF

Further intelligence

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France–UAE — the convention pair

France–Hongkong — the convention pair