Measures to help reduce the tax bill

You can deduct from the final tax due a sum equal to 75% of the amount of donations given to organisations recognised as being of public interest - d’intérêt général - up to a limit of €50,000 of deductions.

In 2025 this relates to gifts made between the 2024 and 2025 income tax deadlines.

This also applies to organisations recognised as d’utilité publique (similar to UK charities) and certain bodies helping people find work or to create businesses.

If unsure if a body qualifies, check with it. It should provide a receipt for your gift, including details of the body, its nature, and the amount. 

Eligible kinds include:

- Foundations seen as d'utilité publique

- Non-profit making research and higher education establishments or schools for the arts, state or private, where the activity is deemed to be of general interest.

Private sector organisations should be managed in an impartial manner and should not be to benefit an overly small and restricted section of the public.

- Various structures aimed at helping people get back into work, such as dedicated organisations – entreprises d'insertion, associations intermédiaires which act as intermediaries between supply workers and firms, as well as ateliers or chantiers d'insertion workshops helping people get back into work. Groups of employers recognised as helping people get back into the workplace and/or improve their qualifications are included.

- Entreprises adaptées: firms which aim to have people with disabilities represent at least 55% of their workforce

- The Agence nationale de la recherche (French national research agency)

- University foundations

- Associations recognised as d’utilité publique and which finance and assist the creation of businesses – or that help those taking on an existing business.

Some gifts to bodies in other EU/EEA states are also eligible. Find out more on qualifying overseas bodies from the Fondation de France, the French partner in the Transnational Giving Europe network (international@fdf.org).

Note: you cannot combine these wealth tax reductions with similar ones for the same investments for income tax.

Other ways to reduce your exposure

Investments in forests, vineyards and farms can reduce IFI.

For those interested in wine an alternative to owning your own vineyard is to buy shares in a GFV, a company which holds vineyards and rents them to winemakers on long leases. 

They are eligible for partial exemption.Investing in one of these costs upwards of about €2,000 per share.

Well-managed forests can make about a 3-4% annual return and 75% of the value is exempted. 

However, you or your heirs need to keep them for at least 30 years and run them sustainably.

You can also invest in a groupement forestier (company owning forests), in which case the person managing the forests must have undertaken similar agreements.