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Benefits of making a lifetime gifts to sons
My wife and I are UK residents but own property in France and may wish to gift it to our two sons. We wonder if it is a good idea, rather than leaving it to them to inherit?
In these simple circumstances there are no particular benefits to be obtained from making an inter vivos gift in advance of one's death, unless the overall value of the property exceeds four times (two parents gifting a quarter each to two children) the threshold for estate duty (droits de succession), ie: currently €400,000, in which case a reversionary gift (donation de nue-propriété) can reduce the likely estate duty burden; or unless there is other valuable property in France, in which case, an inter vivos gift made at least 15 years before death can double the tax-free threshold.
