Does residency of children affect French gift tax limits?
The 2025 budget updated certain rules on gifts between parents and children
The €100,000 allowancecan be renewed every 15 years
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Reader Question: Is the €100,000 gift tax allowance per child only for French children? If so, do you have any advice on how to gift money to our adult children who live abroad? H.W.
The gift tax allowance for gifts to a person’s children is not related to nationality or residency, but only to your relationship with the person.
As a result, it is perfectly possible for it to apply to gifts from a French resident to their children who live abroad. Note that, as a general rule, gifts made by French tax residents are assessable for French gift tax, though subject to specific rules in double tax treaties where these exist with another country with regard to this tax.
Read more: Must gifts to grandchildren living abroad be declared to French tax authorities?
The €100,000 applies per child, per parent and can also be renewed every 15 years.
It can also be combined with a specific allowance for ‘family gifts of money’ of €31,865, which is applicable between parents and children or grandchildren (or uncles/aunts and nephews/nieces where a person does not have children or their own) if the giver is aged under 80.
Additional gift allowance
France's 2025 finance law also contains good news in this respect, with an additional allowance of up to €300,000 per child and €100,000 per giver, for gifts of money aimed at purchase of a main home by the recipient or purchase of a property to rent out as someone else’s main home.
This relates to the same relatives as for ‘family gifts of money’ and the law did not include wording limiting this to recipients/homes in France.
Note, however, that gifts eligible for these various allowances should nonetheless be declared. Depending on circumstances, this can be by the recipient to the non-residents’ tax service, or by the giver, to their own tax office (some experts working with expatriates in France report the latter being generally simpler, and accepted - if in doubt, check with your tax office via a private message on your account at impots.gouv.fr).
