France–Spain — Tax Treaty

1Two conventions, thirty-two years apart — and both of them alive

Two instruments govern this pair, and the unusual thing is that both still do. The convention of 10 October 1995 on income and fortune, in force since 1 July 1997, carries the modern machinery. It has the ordered residence test of article 4. It taxes property income in the country the property is in, with furnished rentals expressly included (article 6 and protocol pt 5). It carries the property-rich gains clause the multilateral instrument rewrote into its 365-day form (article 13 §1 b), a real fortune article (article 23), and a credit-method elimination article (article 24). The multilateral instrument (the anti-abuse rule agreed internationally in 2017) binds France since 1 January 2019 and Spain since 1 January 2022, adding the principal-purpose test under which a treaty advantage can be refused. Beside it stands the convention of 8 January 1963. Its income articles lapsed when the 1973 convention replaced them, but its succession articles (29 to 38) and common provisions remain in force, and the administration re-commented them on 28 November 2024 — sixty-one years after signature. Death, on this pair, is treaty-governed — a footing only a handful of France's relationships share. What neither instrument covers: lifetime gifts, which article 29 §6 of the 1963 text excludes expressly, subject only to its family-allowance and public-body articles (37 and 38). Both conventions were done in French and Spanish, the two texts equally authentic; this brief quotes the French texts in the administration's consolidated presentation.

Who counts as a resident

Both states can treat the same person as their resident. Article 4 of the 1995 convention settles it with a test taken in order, each step used only if the one before it does not decide: permanent home, then centre of vital interests, then habitual abode, then nationality, and finally agreement between the two administrations. France asks its own question first, under CGI article 4 B — where the family home is, where the person actually spends their time, and where their work and money are centred. The Spanish side is stated at orientation level throughout: the Patrimonio and its regional administration, the state solidarity surtax made indefinite in 2023, the 60% joint income-wealth ceiling, the Modelo 720 foreign-asset reporting. What is verified here is the French side and the two treaty texts. The Spanish reading belongs with the family's advisers in Madrid.

Sources considered: 1995 convention arts. 2, 4, 6, protocol pts 5, 11, 14, 16; 1963 convention arts. 29, 37–38; BOI-ANNX-000306 (29 April 2026); BOI-INT-CVB-ESP-20 (28 November 2024). Scope note: Spanish domestic law is orientation only, never load-bearing.

Reviewed as at 11 August 2026 · 1995 convention arts. 2, 4, 6; both protocols read end to end; 1963 convention arts. 29, 37–38; BOI-INT-CVB-ESP-20 (28 November 2024)

2What you pay to buy a property in France — and the wealth tax both states levy on it

A French purchase runs in a fixed order. First an offer. Then the pre-sales contract (compromis de vente), which gives the buyer ten days to withdraw and usually carries a 10% deposit. Then the conditions the sale depends on. Then the final deed, signed before the notaire — the public officer who draws it up and registers it. Take the yardstick this collection uses throughout: the €4.9M median villa of the DVF register. On an existing property the buyer pays about 5.81% in transfer duties and land-registration taxes (€284,526). The notaire's own fees and disbursements add roughly €61,250, set by a regulated sliding scale. Together, an indicative 7% all-in (≈ €345,776). A new-build VAT regime, furniture carve-outs or mortgage security will alter the arithmetic; the notaire itemises the actual deed.

One property, two wealth taxes — and the credit that decides which one you feel

France charges the IFI above €1,300,000 of French real-estate assets (CGI article 964). For an owner not domiciled in France, the base takes in the French property and the property fraction of company shares (article 965 2°). The 1995 convention confirms that: article 23 §1 a lets France tax the property because it stands in France, and §1 b adds shares in companies that mostly hold French property. What the treaty does not do is stop Spain taxing the same property — and that is where this pair differs from most of the collection. Spain taxes its residents' worldwide fortune: the Impuesto sobre el Patrimonio, regionally administered, plus the state solidarity surtax made indefinite in 2023, with combined marginal scales that reach 3.5% — well above the IFI's 1.5% ceiling. Article 24 §2 a resolves the overlap by credit: Spain deducts the French tax paid, capped at its own fraction. In practice the credit is absorbed and the overall wealth-tax cost is set by the higher, Spanish system — stated here at orientation on the Spanish side, with the autonomous community, the ceiling and the surtax belonging to the family's advisers in Madrid. The value declared each year is the owner's own detailed estimate of real market value (CGI article 973 I).

The five-year shield for a Spanish national moving to France

Article 23 §6 carries an arrival clause only a handful of France's treaties have, of the same family as the German text of 1959. A Spanish national who becomes a French resident, without holding French nationality, keeps assets situated outside France out of the French wealth-tax base for the five calendar years following arrival. The shield renews after at least three years of non-residence. The French property itself was never inside the shield: it is taxable from the first day. Three local charges then follow the deed. The annual local property tax (taxe foncière), at communal rates. The possible surcharge (surtaxe) on furnished second homes in designated high-demand areas (zone tendue). And the annual occupancy declaration every owner files. Communal rates move year to year, so this brief re-verifies them at each edition.

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: 1995 convention arts. 2 §§3–4, 23 §§1, 5, 6, 24 §§1 b, 2 a; CGI arts. 964, 965 2°, 973 I. Scope note: the Spanish wealth-tax figures are orientation; the autonomous community decides much of the outcome.

Reviewed as at 11 August 2026 · 1995 convention arts. 2, 23, 24; CGI arts. 964–965, 973 I — Spanish side at orientation

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

Holding structures appear here, per this collection's doctrine, as questions for analysis rather than recommendations. For a Spanish buyer one fact organises the table: the two conventions read a structure with different eyes — the 1995 text reads through property wrappers for gains and fortune, while the 1963 text, which governs death, predates that technique entirely.

Direct ownership

Simplicity, and the clearest treaty position. France taxes the property's income, gains and wealth because the property is in France (articles 6, 13 §1 a, 23 §1 a of the 1995 text). Spain taxes you on everything you own worldwide and deducts what you paid France (article 24 §2 a). And at death France alone taxes the property (article 30), the text counting a right to use it for life as part of the property.

A French SCI

An SCI (a French property-holding company) offers governance, family co-ownership and French financing. For gains and fortune, the 1995 text reads through it: a sale of the shares stays French under the 365-day property-rich clause (article 13 §1 b), and the property fraction bears the IFI (article 23 §1 b). At death the 1963 text asks its own, older questions: its article 31 names SCIs in its permanent-establishment clause ("tout immeuble exploité conformément à leur objet social"), while its article 34 sends shares of capital-type companies to the deceased's residence state. Which reading a given SCI receives is a question the texts leave to the file — presented here strictly as a counsel question, with the principal-purpose test and French anti-abuse law as the backdrop, never as a route.

A Spanish or other foreign company

Confidentiality and consolidation, at the usual French prices. Four charges follow the company. The annual 3% tax on entities holding French property (CGI articles 990 D and 990 E) asks its disclosure question every year. The property fraction of the shares bears the IFI (1995 convention, article 23 §1 b). A sale of the shares meets the 365-day clause. And at death, where the family holds more than half of a company, French law taxes the property as if they held it directly (CGI article 750 ter, 2°); it is then the 1963 convention that decides how far France's charge reaches.

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

The structure most often set beside the loan divides ownership itself: the buyer keeps the usufruct — the use of the property and its income for life — and gives the bare ownership to the next generation. The code prices the split by age: on the scale of CGI article 669, bare ownership stands at 60% of full value where the usufructuary is between 61 and 70, and at 70% between 71 and 80. Duty falls on that fraction alone, at today's value, and the reunification at the usufructuary's death is not taxed again where article 751's conditions are kept — a notarised gift, more than three months before death, valued on the article 669 scale. The wealth tax does not move: article 968 keeps the full value in the usufructuary's IFI base. One pair-specific caution: the gift itself is covered by neither convention (article 29 §6 of the 1963 text), so France taxes it because the property is there and Spain applies its own law separately — the calendar belongs with counsel on both sides.

Borrowing against the French property cuts French wealth tax — within the code's three limits

Acquisition debt owed to a bank is deductible from the IFI base (CGI article 974), and financial assets stand outside the IFI altogether. The code sets three limits. First, a loan that repays all its capital at the end is treated as though it were being repaid gradually: the deduction falls year by year across the loan's life, or by one twentieth a year where no end date is fixed. Second, where the taxable property is worth more than €5M, debt above 60% of that value counts for only half — unless the borrower shows the loan was taken for reasons that are mainly not about tax. Third, the debt has to be real: drawn, serviced and priced at market. Routed through an SCI's shareholder account, it stops reducing the value of the shares at all (article 973). On this pair the debt works twice, and it is worth seeing. What shrinks the French base also shrinks the French tax Spain credits, so the net effect runs through the Spanish computation — a question for the family's advisers in Madrid.

Sources considered: 1995 convention arts. 13 §1 b, 23 §1 b; 1963 convention arts. 30, 31, 34; CGI arts. 669, 750 ter 2°, 751, 968, 973–974, 990 D–990 E. Scope note: structures are questions, not recommendations, settled with counsel in France and in Spain.

Reviewed as at 11 August 2026 · 1995 convention arts. 13, 23; 1963 convention arts. 30–31, 34; CGI arts. 669, 750 ter, 751, 968, 973–974, 990 D–E

4What you pay when you sell — with the EU mechanics working for you

France taxes first, as the state where the property stands. Article 13 §1 a of the 1995 convention assigns gains on French immovables to France. And §1 b, rewritten by the multilateral instrument, reaches further: it catches shares and comparable interests too, partnership and trust interests included. The test looks back a year — more than half the value in French real estate at any point in the 365 days before the sale. Beside them, article 13 §2 keeps a substantial participation — 25% or more, and protocol pt 11 aggregates the holdings of spouse, ascendants and descendants — taxable in the company's residence state. For the Spain-resident seller the rules are in CGI article 244 bis A, and they work in three steps. First, the taxable gain shrinks with the years of ownership: by 6% for each year beyond the fifth, and by 4% for the twenty-second (article 150 VC). Second, the income-tax part runs at 19% (article 200 B) and disappears after 22 years; the social levies take 30 years to disappear. Third, a taxable gain above €50,000 carries the surcharge of article 1609 nonies G — 6% at the levels this market transacts. Worked on €1,000,000 of gross gain, on a property sold at the €4.9M median: after 10 full years the allowance is 30%, so €700,000 stays taxable, giving €133,000 of income tax and a €42,000 surcharge. After 15 years the allowance is 60%, so €400,000 stays taxable, giving €76,000 and €24,000. After 22 years the income-tax part is gone altogether.

The two EU differences

Two mechanics separate this file from every third-country pair in the collection. First the social levies. A seller inside the European social-security coordination owes the solidarity levy at 7.5% instead of the combined 17.2% (CSS article L. 136-7 I ter; CGI article 235 ter). On this pair the reduced rate is the rule — verified against the affiliation facts rather than assumed. And representation: an EU-domiciled seller appoints no accredited tax representative — the obligation of article 244 bis A applies to sellers outside the EU and the EEA, and its IV bis dispenses the EU file; the notaire handles the filing.

What Spain does with the same gain

France taxing first does not stop Spain taxing too. Spain taxes its resident's gain under its own law, with the savings scale reaching 30% at orientation level, and credits the tax paid in France up to the limit of the Spanish tax on that income (article 24 §2 a). The protocol says what counts as creditable: the French tax actually and definitively borne (pt 14). Selling the property or selling the shares of a property-rich company changes the paperwork more than the answer, which article 13 keeps French on both routes.

Leaving after the sale — what the exit tax does and does not reach

France's exit tax (CGI article 167 bis) concerns securities, not property. It reaches persons who were French-domiciled for at least six of the ten years before leaving. What it taxes is the gain on paper as it stands on the day of departure, on holdings worth more than €800,000 or on a stake of 50% or more of a company's profits. A property already sold has settled its own tax under the regimes above, and the sale proceeds 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. A family that leaves before six years of French domicile stands outside the latent-gains charge altogether. Where the exit tax does bite, you generally do not pay it straight away — a move to Spain defers it automatically, because Spain is in the EU. The charge then falls away if you still hold the securities two years after leaving (five years where the portfolio exceeded €2.57M), or if you come back to France.

Sources considered: 1995 convention arts. 13 §§1–2, 24 §2 a, protocol pts 11, 14; CGI arts. 150 UB, 150 VC, 167 bis, 200 B, 235 ter, 244 bis A (incl. IV bis), 1609 nonies G; CSS art. L. 136-7 I ter. Scope note: affiliation is a question of fact — the 7.5% rate is verified per file.

Reviewed as at 11 August 2026 · 1995 convention arts. 13, 24; CGI arts. 150 UB, 150 VC, 167 bis, 200 B, 235 ter, 244 bis A, 1609 nonies G; CSS L. 136-7 I ter

5Renting before you buy, and renting your property out

A rental year before buying remains the classic first step, and it deserves one plain caution. French tax domicile under CGI article 4 B rests on where the family home is, where the person actually spends their time, and where their work and money are centred. None of that yields to the label on a lease. A property that becomes the family's real home can make them French residents, with worldwide consequences, before they have bought anything. The ordered test in article 4 then decides which state prevails. And for a Spanish family the proximity makes the trial year the commonest of the collection, and this caution the most often needed.

Renting the property out reverses the flow. France taxes the rent an owner living abroad earns from a French property, and protocol pt 5 puts furnished rentals expressly inside the treaty's property article. CGI article 197 A sets a floor: at least 20% up to the second-bracket ceiling, and 30% above it. An owner who can show that their worldwide income bears a lower effective rate pays that lower rate instead. Social levies add 7.5% for an EU-affiliated owner and 17.2% otherwise. The convention gives the income to France as the state where the property stands (article 6) without stopping Spain taxing the same rent: Spain taxes its resident on it and deducts the French tax (article 24 §2 a).

Sources considered: CGI arts. 4 B, 197 A, 235 ter; 1995 convention arts. 4, 6, 24 §2 a, protocol pt 5. Scope note: treatment turns on the form of exploitation and on affiliation, both questions of fact.

Reviewed as at 11 August 2026 · CGI arts. 4 B, 197 A; 1995 convention arts. 4, 6, 24; protocol pt 5

6What happens to the property when you die, or give it away — the one estate a treaty still divides between two countries

Death is where this pair stands apart: the 1963 succession convention still says which country taxes which asset, and the administration re-commented it in November 2024. It works asset by asset. The French property is taxed by France and by France only (article 30), and a right to use it for life counts as part of the property. The French rates apply: up to 45% for children on anything above €1.8M each, after the €100,000 allowance per child (CGI articles 777 and 779), with nothing to pay for a surviving spouse. Furniture and other physical belongings are taxed by the country they are in when you die — the furniture goes with the property — while cars, boats and aircraft go to the country they are registered in (article 33). Everything you cannot touch — shares, bank accounts, money owed to you — is taxed only by the country you lived in (article 34): so if you lived in Spain, even your French portfolio and your French bank accounts pay no French duty at all. A mortgage on the property is deducted from the property (article 35). One thing each country keeps. It may work out its RATE as if it were taxing everything you owned, then charge that rate only on the part it is entitled to tax (article 36). So an heir who has lived in France for six of the last ten years can raise the rate France applies (CGI 750 ter 3°) without widening what France taxes. Spanish nationals get the French family allowances on the same terms as French nationals (article 37). The values you declare are your own detailed estimate of what the property would sell for (CGI articles 761 and 1897).

Gifts stand outside — and forced heirship stands easy

Lifetime gifts are excluded from the 1963 convention by its own article 29 §6, subject only to the family-allowance and public-body articles. Three things follow. A gift of the French property bears French gift duty, because the property is in France. Spain applies its own inheritance-and-gift tax under its own law. And between the two, only domestic relief mediates. The choice-of-law layer is calmer here than on most pairs. Under Regulation 650/2012 a Spanish national habitually resident in France may elect Spanish law for the succession. And Spanish law protects children through the legítima, which is a genuine reserve mechanism. So the compensatory levy of Code civil article 913, al. 3 — written for laws that protect children not at all — is not engaged by the Spanish model. The point is assessed on the succession's actual facts, foral variations included. The choice of law, the matrimonial regime and the calendar of any gifts belong with counsel on both sides, before the pre-sales contract.

Sources considered: 1963 convention arts. 29 §6, 30, 33–37; CGI arts. 750 ter, 761, 777, 779, 1897; Code civil arts. 912–913; EU Reg. 650/2012; BOI-INT-CVB-ESP-20 (28 November 2024). Scope note: the legítima and its foral variations are stated at orientation.

Reviewed as at 11 August 2026 · 1963 convention arts. 29–38; CGI arts. 750 ter, 761, 777, 779, 1897; Code civil art. 913 al. 3; EU Reg. 650/2012

7The eight questions Spanish owners ask most

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

Yes — the IFI applies above €1.3M of French real-estate assets, and the 1995 convention confirms that answer (article 23 §1 a). Spain then taxes the same property inside its resident's worldwide Patrimonio and credits the French tax (article 24 §2 a). The Spanish scales run higher than the IFI's ceiling, so the overall cost is usually set by the Spanish system.

Which country taxes the succession on a French property?

France, exclusively — by treaty. Article 30 of the 1963 succession convention sends immovables to the state where they stand, at French scales to 45% in the direct line. The rest of the estate splits by asset class: securities and bank accounts go exclusively to the deceased's residence state (article 34), furniture and belongings to the country they are in, vehicles to their registration state (article 33).

Are lifetime gifts covered by the treaties?

No. Article 29 §6 of the 1963 convention excludes gifts expressly, and the 1995 convention covers income and fortune only. A gift of the French property bears French gift duty because the property is there, while Spain applies its own law separately — only the two domestic systems' own reliefs mediate.

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

France first, where the property stands (article 13 §1 a), under CGI article 244 bis A with the duration allowances — the income-tax component extinct after 22 years, the social levies after 30. Spain then taxes the same gain and credits the French charge (article 24 §2 a). Property-rich shares follow under the 365-day clause (article 13 §1 b).

Is the reduced 7.5% social levy available?

As a rule, yes. A seller or owner within the European social-security coordination owes the solidarity levy at 7.5% instead of the combined 17.2% (CSS article L. 136-7 I ter) — affiliation is a question of fact, verified per file rather than assumed.

Does the sale require a fiscal representative?

No. Spain is an EU member state, and the accredited-representative obligation of CGI article 244 bis A does not apply to EU-domiciled sellers (its IV bis); the notaire handles the filing.

What does the five-year shield of article 23 §6 do?

For a Spanish national who becomes a French resident without holding French nationality, it keeps assets situated outside France out of the French wealth-tax base for the five calendar years following arrival, renewable after at least three years of non-residence. The French property itself is taxable from the first day — the shield never covered it. A dual French-Spanish national falls outside the clause.

Does French forced heirship bind a Spanish family?

Gently. Under EU Regulation 650/2012 a Spanish national habitually resident in France may elect Spanish law for the whole succession. Spanish law carries its own reserve, the legítima, which protects children as a genuine reserve mechanism. So the compensatory levy of Code civil article 913, al. 3 — aimed at laws with no protective mechanism at all — is not engaged by the Spanish model. The point is assessed on the succession's facts, foral variations included.

Sources considered: 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 figures

The market first, because every figure above traces to it. Three registers cleared €11.5 billion across 2014–2025: the Saint-Tropez peninsula (1,006 qualified €3M+ villa sales for €7,049M, at a €4.9M median), Cannes and its hills (306 sales, €2,066M) and Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat (178 sales, €6.5M median). Every line traces to the state's own transaction data — DVF (« Demandes de Valeurs Foncières », DGFiP), villa sales of €3M and above, duplicate estate records removed. At this edition the surveyed registers carry no ownership position attributable to Spanish residence — the blank line is stated rather than passed over.

The legal method. Legal statements are verified against the Chiron Legal Corpus — the research library maintained by our agency's offshore legal-research partner — re-checked against the official sources at each edition. The review of 11 August 2026 read the consolidated texts on Légifrance: CGI articles 4 B, 150 UB, 150 VC, 167 bis, 197 A, 200 B, 235 ter, 244 bis A incl. IV bis, 669, 750 ter, 751, 761, 777, 779, 964–965, 968, 973–974, 990 D–990 E, 1609 nonies G, 1897; CSS article L. 136-7; and Code civil article 913. It took both conventions next — the 1995 convention in its official French consolidation, with the multilateral instrument incorporated, and the 1963 succession convention. Last came the administration's commentary: the income chapter of September 2012, which predates the instrument and yields to the texts, and the succession chapter refreshed 28 November 2024. This migration re-read the pivotal articles verbatim and BOTH protocols end to end: the 1995 protocol's pts 5, 11, 14 and 16, and the 1963 publication. The title of that last one lists an additional protocol while the text carries no distinct protocol body after the signatures. Our agency records the point rather than leaving it implicit; no statement in this brief rests on it.

Both conventions were done in French and Spanish, the two texts equally authentic. The corpus holds the French official texts; the Spanish authentic texts are not yet held — an open item our agency records rather than leaves implicit. Spanish domestic law — the Patrimonio and its regional administration, the solidarity surtax, the savings scale, the Modelo 720, the legítima and its foral variations — is stated at orientation level from secondary sources and is never load-bearing for a legal claim.

What our agency is watching for the next edition. First, the Spanish wealth-tax file itself: the state surtax is indefinite "until patrimonial taxation is reviewed", and a reform would rewrite § 2. Then annual budget law (Loi de finances) movements on the IFI and transfer duties; communal surcharge votes on the Riviera arc; any change to either state's reservations under the multilateral instrument; and any refresh of either commentary chapter.

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, our agency coordinates the appropriate French counsel (avocat fiscaliste, notaire) and executes the property side.

Reviewed as at 11 August 2026 · both conventions read, both protocols end to end; 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–Australia — the convention pair

France–Luxembourg — the convention pair

Edición en español