France–Spain — The Riviera Private Wealth Brief

0Executive summary

Law reviewed as at 19 July 2026 — verified against Légifrance and BOFiP through the Chiron Legal Corpus

1The France–Spain conventions — 1995 and 1963

The relationship rests on two instruments of very different ages, each doing distinct work. Income, gains and fortune run on the convention of 10 October 1995, in force since 1 July 1997, which replaced the 1973 income convention — itself the successor to the income side of the 1963 text. The 1995 convention lists the wealth taxes of both states by name: the French impôt de solidarité sur la fortune on one side, the Spanish Impuesto sobre el Patrimonio on the other (article 2 §3), and it extends to identical or analogous taxes instituted after signature (article 2 §4) — the footing on which the IFI, successor to the ISF from 2018, is examined, and the footing on which the Spanish solidarity surtax on large fortunes falls to be examined on the Spanish side. Both states signed the multilateral instrument on 7 June 2017, in force for France since 1 January 2019 and for Spain since 1 January 2022; the administration publishes a consolidated presentation of the convention as so modified, which this brief quotes. The consolidation carries the principal-purpose test, under which a treaty advantage can be refused where obtaining it was a principal object of an arrangement, and it rewrites the property-rich clause of article 13 on the 365-day model.

Succession has its own, older instrument — and it is alive. The convention of 8 January 1963, in force since 29 December 1963, originally covered income and successions together. Its income side was superseded in 1973 and again in 1995, yet its succession articles — 29 to 38, together with the common provisions of articles 1 to 7 and 39 to 45 — remain applicable to estates of persons resident of France or Spain at death. The administration's own treaty table of April 2026 lists the pairing plainly: the 1995 convention for income and fortune, the 1963 convention for successions. Residence under each instrument is resolved on the familiar cascade — permanent home, centre of vital interests, habitual abode, nationality, mutual agreement (1995 convention article 4 §2; 1963 convention article 3 §2). The authentic texts of both instruments are French and Spanish; this brief quotes the French presentation.

The Spanish side keeps its own accents. Spain taxes the worldwide fortune of its residents through a wealth tax administered largely by the autonomous communities, completed since 2022 by a state-level solidarity surtax on net wealth above €3M which neutralises regional reliefs and was made indefinite at the end of 2023; residents also declare foreign assets, the French villa included, on the dedicated reporting form. Succession law rests on the legítima, a reserve system of Roman design, with regional variations. This brief states Spanish law at orientation level only; its verified ground is the French side and the two conventions, and the Spanish reading belongs with the family's Spanish advisers.

Law reviewed as at 19 July 2026 — verified against Légifrance and BOFiP through the Chiron Legal Corpus · 1995 convention (consolidated presentation with the MLI) arts. 2, 4; 1963 convention arts. 1–7, 29; BOI-INT-CVB-ESP-10 (2012 vintage — the text prevails); BOI-INT-CVB-ESP-20 (refreshed 28 Nov 2024); BOI-ANNX-000306 (29 Apr 2026)

2The market seen from Spain

Seen from Spain, the Riviera's €3M+ villa market leads with the Saint-Tropez peninsula, the largest register of its kind on the coast: 1006 qualified sales for €7,049M across 2014–2025, at a €4.9M median and a €85.5M ceiling, with 42% of value in eight-figure transactions. Cannes and its hills — the Super Cannes quarter on the Vallauris side included — contributed 306 sales for €2,066M at the same €4.9M median, while Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat remains the narrowest and most expensive register: 178 sales for €2,375M at a €6.5M median and a €200.0M ceiling. The past 36 months alone account for €3,970M across the three.

Source: DVF (« Demandes de Valeurs Foncières », DGFiP), villa sales ≥ €3M, 2014–2025, estate-deduplicated — the same convention as the published Riviera Intelligence hub, so this brief and the public pages cannot disagree. DVF through 2025-12-31.

Law reviewed as at 19 July 2026 — verified against Légifrance and BOFiP through the Chiron Legal Corpus · DVF register, estate-deduplicated

IBuying in France as a Spanish resident

The process and its costs

The acquisition follows the standard French sequence: offer, compromis de vente with a ten-day cooling-off period, deposit of customarily 10%, conditions precedent, and the authentic deed before the notaire, who collects the duties and registers title. The notaire acts as a public officer rather than as the buyer's counsel, and Spanish buyers — accustomed to a notarial system of similar design — typically retain their own advisers in addition. Because the 1963 convention settles succession questions largely by reference to what the deed creates, and because gifts sit outside that convention altogether, the structure questions of section I bis deserve to be answered before the compromis is signed; the acquiring vehicle is difficult to change once the process is under way.

The cost of owning — two wealth taxes, one credit

CGI article 964 institutes the annual French tax on real-estate wealth above €1,300,000 of taxable assets. For persons not domiciled in France the base comprises French-situs property together with the fraction of any company's shares representing French property (article 965), and the treaty confirms the charge: article 23 §1 a of the 1995 convention makes the wealth constituted by French immovables taxable in France, and §1 b reads through companies whose assets consist principally of French real estate, directly or via interposed entities. A wrapper therefore relocates nothing for the IFI.

The allocation, however, is not exclusive, and here this relationship differs from most in this series. Spain taxes the worldwide fortune of its residents — through the Impuesto sobre el Patrimonio, completed since 2022 by the state-level solidarity surtax on net wealth above €3M, made indefinite at the end of 2023 — and article 24 §2 a of the convention resolves the overlap by credit: Spain deducts the tax paid in France, within the limit of its own tax on the same fortune. In practice the Spanish combined scales rise to 3.5% at the top, well above the IFI's 1.5% ceiling rate, so the credit is typically absorbed in full and the annual wealth-tax cost of the villa settles at the level of the higher system. The regional reliefs a Madrid or Andalusian resident may know from the Patrimonio do not extend past the solidarity surtax, which was designed to neutralise them; the Spanish computation, the 60% income-wealth ceiling and the surtax's own mechanics are matters for the family's Spanish advisers, stated here at orientation only.

For the family weighing a full move to France, the convention improves on the French statute. French law taxes any new resident arriving after five years abroad on French assets only for five years (article 964-1°, al. 2); article 23 §6 of the convention grants Spanish nationals without French nationality the same five-year exclusion of non-French assets as a treaty right — one France cannot narrow unilaterally — and renews it where the person, having ceased to be a French resident for at least three years, later returns.

Recurring charges follow the property. Taxe foncière runs at communal rates; for furnished secondary residences, communes in the zone tendue — a category that includes the marquee Riviera communes — may vote a surtaxe on the taxe d'habitation for second homes, and the annual occupancy declaration is required of all owners. A Spanish resident will in addition carry the villa on Spain's declaration of assets held abroad. Because communal rates are year-specific, this brief's edition cycle re-verifies them rather than freezing them.

Law reviewed as at 19 July 2026 — verified against Légifrance and BOFiP through the Chiron Legal Corpus · CGI arts. 964–965; 1995 convention arts. 23 §1, 23 §6, 24 §2; cost scales stated for orientation, itemised at engagement; Spanish internals at orientation

I bisStructures, as questions

The structure question

Holding structures are presented here, in keeping with this line's doctrine, as questions for analysis rather than as recommendations. For a Spanish buyer the analysis carries one organising fact: the modern 1995 convention reads through property-rich wrappers for gains and for wealth, while the 1963 succession convention runs an older architecture of its own — and the two do not always give the same answer.

Debt against the IFI — what the code anticipates

The financing conversation runs as it does elsewhere on this coast: a loan from the buyer's bank, secured on a pledged portfolio, so that liquidity remains invested while the debt reduces the taxable base. The mechanics are lawful and the code anticipates them. Acquisition debt owed to a bank is deductible from the IFI base under CGI article 974, while financial assets sit outside that base altogether. The boundaries are three. Loans repaying capital at term are deemed to amortise, the deduction declining pro rata over the loan's life, and 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 contracted mainly for tax. And the debt must be real — actually drawn, actually serviced, at market terms; routed through a shareholder account of an SCI it ceases to count for valuing the shares (article 973). For a Spanish resident the exercise has a second leg: whether the same debt reduces the Spanish wealth-tax base for the same asset is a question of Spanish law, answered by the family's Spanish advisers, and the two answers need not coincide. The 1963 convention adds a succession counterpart of its own: debts secured on the villa by mortgage are imputed against it for the duty France levies at death (article 35 §2), so the loan follows the asset it financed.

What the acquisition decides for succession — and what it cannot

The 1963 convention's architecture is settled, and it is exclusive. The villa, its accessories and usufruct rights over it answer to succession duty only in France, the state where it stands (article 30); tangible movables, the villa's furniture included, answer to the state where they sit at death (article 33); and intangibles — securities, claims of every nature, bank balances — answer only to the state of the deceased's residence (article 34). For a Spanish-resident owner the division is clean: France taxes the villa and its contents, Spain taxes the portfolios and accounts, wherever kept. The exclusivity works in both directions: France's beneficiary-side rule, which domestically reaches heirs resident in France, cannot enlarge the French base against the treaty's allocation — it feeds only the effective-rate computation that article 36 reserves to each state. Where French duty applies, the scale is that of CGI article 777, progressive to 45% in the direct line beyond €1.8M per share after the €100,000 per-child allowance of article 779 — an allowance article 37 of the convention confirms to Spanish nationals on equal terms — with the surviving spouse exempt.

What the treaty does not do is govern gifts. Article 29 §6 excludes lifetime gift duties from the convention, subject only to articles 37 and 38, so a gift of the villa runs under French domestic law as the state of situation, under Spanish law on Spain's own terms, and any relief between the two runs on unilateral machinery rather than on treaty allocation. Before either state determines the duty, the civil law determines who inherits. Both states apply EU Regulation 650/2012, so a Spanish national habitually resident in France may elect Spanish law — and with it the legítima of the common Civil Code or the family's own foral regime, Spain being a state of several succession laws — for the succession as a whole, while the fiscal allocation above is unaffected by the election. Because Spanish law protects children through a reserve mechanism of its own, the French compensatory levy of Code civil article 913, alinéa 3 — reserved for successions governed by a law that provides no such protection — is not engaged by the election of Spanish law. The choice of law, the matrimonial regime carried into the purchase, and the calendar of any gifts are questions for counsel on both sides, best answered before the compromis.

The démembrement — bare ownership gifted, use retained

The structure commonly proposed alongside the loan divides ownership itself: the buyer retains the usufruct, the use of the villa and its income for life, and gifts the bare ownership to the next generation. The code values the split by age. Under the scale of CGI article 669, bare ownership represents 60% of full value where the usufructuary is between 61 and 70, and 70% between 71 and 80; the gift bears duty on that fraction alone, at today's value, and the reunification of full ownership at the usufructuary's 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 within the usufructuary's IFI base, so the wealth tax is unmoved on the French side. For a Spanish family one precision matters more here than in most relationships: the gift falls outside the 1963 convention, so France taxes it as the situs state under domestic law and the Spanish treatment of the same transmission — including its own valuation of the split — is a question for Spanish counsel, not a treaty mechanism. The forced-heirship consequences of a gift to children, under whichever law the family elects, belong in the same conversation.

Law reviewed as at 19 July 2026 — verified against Légifrance and BOFiP through the Chiron Legal Corpus · CGI arts. 669, 751, 777, 779, 968, 973–974, 990 J, 1649 AB; Code civil art. 913; 1963 convention arts. 29 §6, 30, 33–37; 1995 convention arts. 13, 23; EU Reg. 650/2012

IISelling as a Spanish resident

France taxes first. Article 13 §1 a of the 1995 convention assigns gains on French immovables to France, and §1 b — rewritten by the multilateral instrument — reaches gains on shares or comparable interests, partnerships and trusts included, that drew more than half their value from French real estate at any time in the 365 days before the sale. A substantial participation of at least a quarter of a French company's capital or profit rights, held alone or with spouse, ascendants or descendants, is French-taxable on a separate footing (article 13 §2, protocol point 11). For a Spanish-resident seller the French charge runs under CGI article 244 bis A: the taxable gain is reduced by an ownership-duration allowance of 6% for each year of ownership beyond the fifth and 4% for the twenty-second (article 150 VC), the income-tax component then applying at 19% (article 200 B) and extinguishing after 22 years, while the social levies extinguish after 30 and follow the seller's social-security affiliation — for owners within the European coordination, generally the 7.5% solidarity levy rather than the full 17.2%, verified at engagement. Taxable gains above €50,000 bear in addition the progressive surcharge of article 1609 nonies G, which reaches 6% at the levels this market transacts. Spain being a member state of the European Union, the accredited fiscal-representation requirement borne by third-country sellers does not arise (article 244 bis A, IV bis).

Spain then answers by credit rather than by exemption — a mechanical point with real consequences. Under article 24 §2 a, a Spanish resident's French gain enters the Spanish base, and Spain deducts the tax paid in France within the limit of its own tax on that gain. Where the Spanish computation — its savings scale, its own base rules, neither of them reduced by France's duration allowances — exceeds the French charge, the difference remains payable in Spain. The French clock therefore settles the French tax, not necessarily the whole tax; the combined position on a given holding period is established with the family's Spanish advisers before marketing begins rather than in the course of negotiation. The choice between selling the villa and selling the shares of a property-rich company changes the pool of buyers and the deed, but not the allocation: article 13 keeps both within France's reach, with the same Spanish credit behind it.

Leaving after the sale — a note on the exit tax

Families who sell and then move away from France sometimes ask whether an exit charge applies on departure. The answer is narrower than the name suggests. France's exit tax (CGI article 167 bis) is aimed at securities, not at property: it concerns persons who were French-domiciled for at least six of the ten years before leaving, and taxes the unrealised gains on substantial securities holdings — positions whose combined value exceeds €800,000, or stakes of 50% or more in a company's profits, the second criterion catching a controlling holding whatever its value — as they stand on the day of departure. A villa already sold has settled its own tax under the regimes above, and the sale proceeds themselves are not within the charge. Shares of a family SCI follow the property rather than the portfolio: so long as the company keeps the ordinary income-tax regime, gains on its property-rich shares remain within the real-estate regime (CGI article 150 UB) and outside the exit tax — the French right to tax a later sale being preserved instead by article 244 bis A. A company that has opted for corporation tax changes the classification, and with it the analysis; the option belongs on the pre-departure checklist. The residence clock matters equally: a person who leaves before six years of French domicile within the preceding ten stands outside the latent-gains charge altogether, so the family that tried France for a few years and moved on typically departs untouched; gains already placed under a tax deferral follow their own rules and are reviewed at engagement. Where the machinery does apply to a move to Spain, payment is deferred automatically, the destination being a member state of the European Union, and the assessment lapses of itself where the securities are still held two years after departure — five where the portfolio exceeded €2.57M — or upon a return to France. For most sellers the exit tax is therefore a question of calendar and paperwork rather than of cost.

Law reviewed as at 19 July 2026 — verified against Légifrance and BOFiP through the Chiron Legal Corpus · 1995 convention arts. 13, 24 §2; CGI arts. 150 UB, 150 VC, 167 bis, 200 B, 244 bis A (incl. IV bis), 1609 nonies G; solidarity levy per EU coordination, verified at engagement

IIIRenting — as tenant and as owner

Renting as a tenant

A rental year before purchase remains the classic first step, and it carries one caution worth stating clearly: French tax domicile under CGI article 4 B turns on the location of the foyer, the principal place of stay, and the centres of professional and economic interest — none of which defers to a lease. A Riviera villa that becomes the family's effective home can establish French residence, with worldwide consequences, well before any purchase; for a Spanish national the five-year window of article 23 §6, described above, then gives the calendar of those first years a value of its own. The choice between furnished seasonal lettings and the one-to-three-year civil lease determines exit flexibility, and is best matched to the trial's real purpose.

Renting the villa out

French-source rental income of non-residents is taxed by France as the state where the property stands (1995 convention, article 6), and the protocol places furnished lettings — the form common at this price point — expressly within that article (protocol point 5). France applies the minimum-rate regime of CGI article 197 A, at no less than 20% up to the second-bracket ceiling and 30% above it, unless the taxpayer demonstrates a lower worldwide effective rate; social levies apply in addition, for Spanish-affiliated owners generally at the 7.5% solidarity rate, verified at engagement. Spain then includes the income in its resident's worldwide base and credits the French tax within the limit of its own (article 24 §2 a) — so here too the French charge settles the French tax rather than necessarily the whole tax, and the net yield is computed with both systems in view.

Law reviewed as at 19 July 2026 — verified against Légifrance and BOFiP through the Chiron Legal Corpus · CGI arts. 4 B, 197 A; 1995 convention art. 6 + protocol pt 5, art. 24 §2

4What changed

Edition 1 — baseline (July 2026). The instruments as they stand: the convention of 10 October 1995, in force since 1 July 1997, as modified by the multilateral instrument — in force for France since 1 January 2019 and for Spain since 1 January 2022 — in the administration's consolidated presentation; and the surviving succession articles of the convention of 8 January 1963, in force since 29 December 1963. Two movements frame the file. First, the administration refreshed its commentary on the 1963 succession convention on 28 November 2024 — a sixty-year-old instrument re-commented in detail, bank balances and worked examples included, is an instrument being administered, not one falling into disuse. Second, the Spanish wealth-tax file remains in motion: the solidarity surtax on large fortunes, introduced as temporary for 2022 and 2023, was made indefinite at the end of 2023 pending Spain's review of patrimonial taxation within the regional-financing reform, and its filing machinery was updated again in June 2026 — the review, when it comes, will move the arithmetic of section I. Further watch items for edition 2: annual Loi de finances movements on the IFI and transfer duties; communal surtaxe votes on the Riviera arc; and any refresh of the administration's 2012-vintage commentary on the 1995 convention, which predates the multilateral instrument. No renegotiation of either convention is recorded on either side as at this edition.

Law reviewed as at 19 July 2026 — verified against Légifrance and BOFiP through the Chiron Legal Corpus

5Questions, answered

Does a Spanish resident pay French wealth tax on a Riviera villa?

Yes, once French real-estate assets exceed €1.3M, whether held directly or through the property fraction of company shares (CGI arts. 964–965). The 1995 convention makes French-situs property wealth taxable in France (art. 23 §1), and the charge arrives with treaty confirmation rather than treaty shelter.

Does the treaty stop Spain from taxing the same villa?

No. The allocation of article 23 §1 is not exclusive, so Spain — one of the few states still levying a live wealth tax — includes the villa in its resident's worldwide base and credits the French tax against its own, within the limit of the Spanish tax on that fortune (art. 24 §2 a). Because the Spanish combined scales rise above the IFI's ceiling rate, the annual cost typically settles at the level of the higher system.

Does moving to France expose a Spanish national's worldwide assets immediately?

Not for the first five years. Under article 23 §6 of the 1995 convention, a Spanish national without French nationality who becomes a French resident keeps assets situated outside France out of the French wealth-tax base for the five calendar years following the move, and the window renews after at least three years of non-residence — a treaty right, not merely a domestic concession.

Who taxes the gain when a Spanish resident sells a French villa?

France taxes first, as the state where the property stands (1995 convention, art. 13 §1), under CGI article 244 bis A with the ownership-duration allowances — the income-tax component extinguishing after 22 years and the social levies after 30, at the 7.5% solidarity rate for EU-affiliated sellers. Spain then includes the gain in its own base and credits the French tax (art. 24 §2 a), so any Spanish excess over the French charge remains payable in Spain.

Which country taxes the succession on a French villa?

France alone. The succession articles of the 1963 convention remain in force, and article 30 makes immovables taxable only in the state where they stand, within a two-mass architecture that divides the estate between the two states. Spain taxes its own mass — notably the intangibles of article 34 — and each state may compute its rate as if the whole estate were before it (art. 36).

Are a Spanish resident's French bank accounts and portfolios taxed in France at death?

No. Securities and claims of every nature, bank balances included, are intangibles that article 34 of the 1963 convention allocates exclusively to the deceased's state of residence. The allocation also holds against France's beneficiary-side rule for heirs resident in France, which feeds only the effective-rate computation of article 36, not the French base.

Are lifetime gifts covered by the France–Spain treaty?

No — article 29 §6 of the 1963 convention excludes gift duties, subject only to the equal-treatment and public-interest clauses of articles 37 and 38. A gift of the villa, or of its bare ownership, is taxed by France under domestic law as the state of situation, and relief on the Spanish side runs on Spain's own machinery rather than on treaty allocation.

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

Yes — by France as the situs state (1995 convention, art. 6, furnished lettings expressly included by the protocol), under the minimum-rate regime of CGI article 197 A at no less than 20% and 30%, with social levies in addition. Spain then includes the income in the resident's base and credits the French tax within the limit of its own (art. 24 §2 a).

Does a French exit tax apply after selling and leaving?

Rarely, and never on the villa itself. The charge (CGI art. 167 bis) reaches only persons French-domiciled for six of the ten years before departure, and only their unrealised gains on securities — above €800,000 in value, or stakes of 50% or more of a company's profits; the sold villa and its proceeds stand outside, as do family-SCI shares kept under the ordinary income-tax regime (art. 150 UB). For a move to Spain, payment is deferred automatically as an EU destination, and the assessment lapses after two years — five above €2.57M — or upon return to France.

What is the Chiron Legal Corpus?

The Chiron Legal Corpus is the research library behind this brief, maintained by this office's offshore legal-research partner: an extensive cross-border collection of consolidated statutes, tax-authority doctrine, treaty instruments and case law, including the French primary sources in full text. Every statement of law in these pages is verified against it, re-checked against Légifrance and BOFiP at each edition, and stamped with its review date section by section.

Law reviewed as at 19 July 2026 — verified against Légifrance and BOFiP through the Chiron Legal Corpus

6Methodology, sources & qualifications

Method. Legal statements are verified against the Chiron Legal Corpus, the research library maintained by this office's offshore legal-research partner — an extensive cross-border and international collection of consolidated statutes, tax-authority doctrine, treaty instruments and case law, including French primary law held in full text and re-checked against the official sources at each edition. The review of 19 July 2026 covered Légifrance (CGI arts. 4 B, 150 UB, 150 VC, 167 bis, 197 A, 200 B, 244 bis A, 669, 750 ter, 751, 777, 779, 964–965, 968, 973–974, 990 J, 1609 nonies G, 1649 AB; Code civil art. 913 — consolidated texts) and both treaty instruments in their official French presentations: the 1995 convention in the administration's consolidated presentation with the multilateral instrument, and the 1963 convention's surviving succession articles — the authentic texts of both being French and Spanish. The administration's commentary on the 1995 convention (BOI-INT-CVB-ESP-10) dates from 2012 and predates the multilateral instrument; this brief follows the consolidated text. Its commentary on the 1963 succession convention (BOI-INT-CVB-ESP-20) was refreshed on 28 November 2024 and is followed alongside the raw text. The administration's treaty table of April 2026 records both instruments in force. Spanish domestic law — the Patrimonio, the solidarity surtax, the savings scale, the legítima and its regional variations — is stated at orientation level from official Spanish publications and is never load-bearing for a legal claim. Market data: DVF (DGFiP), villa sales ≥ €3M, estate-deduplicated, register through 2025-12-31. Items flagged "at engagement" — communal rates, social-levy affiliation, the Spanish computation and credit, the deed-level gain base — are stated at mechanism level pending case-specific verification.

Qualification. This brief documents published law and public transaction data; it is research rather than personalised legal or tax advice, and individual circumstances — residence history, nationality, matrimonial regime, the chain of title — change outcomes. For a live transaction, this office coordinates the appropriate French counsel (avocat fiscaliste, notaire) and executes the property side.

Law reviewed as at 19 July 2026 — verified against Légifrance and BOFiP through the Chiron Legal Corpus

Further intelligence

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

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

France–Australia — the convention pair

France–Luxembourg — the convention pair

Edición en español