The issue of inheritance rights is one of the rare themes that has managed to emerge since the start of the presidential campaign.
The candidates agree on the need for reform, because the current system is failing.
France is one of the countries in the world that taxes inheritance the most, but many niches benefiting especially the largest heritages undermine the principle of redistribution of wealth.
20 Minutes
interviewed two voters who are calling for a change in the rules.
The response fuses almost in spite of herself, in a breath that reflects all the complexity of the subject.
“Yes”, Anne-Laure, soon to be 36 years old and future mother, is relieved to finally be able to close the file of the estate of her father, who died on August 5.
At the beginning of the week, just before the end of the legal six-month period, this resident of Hauts-de-Seine signed the document recording the sharing of the paternal inheritance with her sister.
“There is mourning, and at the same time you are obliged to do all these steps, she sighs.
You can't put them off for very long.
»
Double tax
Sitting opposite the small table in her living room, the young woman receives us just before her appointment with the notary.
She tells her story, one of many behind the debate over inheritance rights.
The official will have to pay a sum of 25,000 euros from her father's inheritance, which included real estate, current accounts and various investments, for a total sum of 400,000 euros.
Attached to equalization, she still finds inheritance rights too often “random” and “unfair”.
“The French state takes to redistribute, OK, it is built on this principle.
But bringing an apartment back into the system that has already been subject to a redistributive tax, for example, I find that a shame,” judge Anne-Laure.
The main candidates for the presidential election as well.
They unanimously consider it necessary to free as many French people as possible from this "death tax", as Eric Ciotti had described it during the LR primary.
Enough to make it one of the few themes that managed to emerge in this campaign.
A tax rate that can go up to 60%
In practice, many heirs are exempt from inheritance tax.
Barely a quarter of inheritances are taxed, in particular thanks to the reduction of 100,000 euros granted directly (between parents and children) – half of the French inherit less than 70,000 euros, according to Bercy.
There are also measures to reduce taxation, such as life insurance, the property division scheme, or the Dutreil pact for family businesses.
It is still necessary to be well advised to know the technical subtleties, and to do it in advance.
"If you suffer them, inheritance tax can be very expensive," says Maître Antoine Hurel, Anne-Laure's notary.
France is one of the countries in the world that taxes transmissions the most.
The rate can go up to 45% in the direct line, 55% for nephews and nieces, and even 60% for distant relatives or heirs outside the family, when it caps for example at 8% in Italy or 10% in Portugal.
However, “the inheritance is visceral, the fruit of a lifetime's work, observes Julien Séraqui, president of the National Chamber of Wealth Management Advisors.
This tax is poorly accepted because people consider that they are going to pay significant taxes on sums that have already been deducted.
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We saw this in the call for testimonials launched with our readers on the question.
Inheritance rights?
“Stealing”, for Josette, Thierry and so many others.
"An abomination," even writes Annie.
I am shocked to see that the property I have acquired through my work cannot be passed on to my children because they will not be able to pay the sum required by the State.
The main residence tax is the number one grievance.
A source of inequality
In a report published in December, the Economic Analysis Council (CAE), the body that advises the Prime Minister, is very strict with the current system. He alerts in particular to the fact that thanks to special devices, the “top 0.1%” of the richest French people “only pay barely 10% in inheritance tax”, very far from the rate of 45% normally in force. beyond 1.8 million euros transmitted. Clearly, inheritance rights, supposed to reduce inequalities with a progressive scale, deepen them even more. “Inheritance is again becoming a determining factor in the constitution of heritage”, observes the CAE, specifying that it currently represents 60% of the capital of the French, against 35% at the beginning of the 1970s.
What should be changed then?
Our witness, in the course of the discussion, outlines a few ideas drawn from his personal experience.
"Remove the main residence from inheritance tax, or tax it only on the capital gain on resale, with a corrective index depending on the date of purchase because real estate has soared in recent years", thus proposes Anne Laure.
Or “to be able to give more regularly during your lifetime, and more easily on less direct lines that remain in the family.
It would also allow money to circulate in the economy, ”she imagines.
Blind spots
These proposals directly echo those made by the contenders for the Elysée.
Valérie Pécresse had been one of the first to draw, announcing that she wanted to raise the reduction threshold to 200,000 euros per child (100,000 euros for indirect transmission), and allow donations of up to 100,000 euros every six years (instead of fifteen ).
This period would be 10 years with Marine Le Pen, who also intends to exempt real estate up to 300,000 euros.
The left intends to use substantially the same levers, by adding taxes to which the largest heritages could not escape.
Anne Hidalgo targets those above 2 million euros, when Jean-Luc Mélenchon wants to be radical, with his idea of collecting everything beyond 12 million.
But Anne-Laure, to whom we would advise to apply in certain teams of candidates, still has ideas full of her hood.
“Align the tax rate with that of the withholding tax, a good indicator of the standard of living of the person who inherits”, suggests the one who is taxed at 20% for this inheritance, against 7% on his income.
The young woman would also find it fairer for the tax to be calculated on the amount actually inherited, “and not on the bank statements on the date of death”.
She keeps in the throat some 17,000 euros withdrawn from her father's account after August 5, of which she never saw the color but on which she was taxed.
🇬🇧 Legacy invites itself into the presidential campaign.
But what are inheritance taxes really and why are they said to perpetuate inequalities?
We take stock for you 👇 https://t.co/hCbCGxKjjk pic.twitter.com/pcLHdcXfpu
– La Fabrique à Stories d’Ouest-France (@FabriqueStories) January 31, 2022
Last aspirations for the road, "return on the taxation of the debt when you inherit a farm or a company that had it" and extend the deadline to one year to settle this big file.
So many blind spots that we find few – if any – in the debates on inheritance rights.
For her, whoever goes to the Elysée Palace, “the important thing will be to explain the reform well and what the state really wants to do.
The succession, we will all be confronted with it one day or another.
So it's important that everyone understands, that we put an end to the impression of being subjected to this system.
»
"A complex question, on which we must find the right balance"
From the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, Andrée plussoie. This 67-year-old retiree is also managing the estate of her father, who died two and a half months ago. A "smooth" file, prepared at the time of the disappearance of his mother, fourteen years ago. This does not prevent him from thinking “only badly” of the current system. “My husband's sister, for example, has no children and two houses. We will leave a lot of feathers in the transmission. You will have to sell one house to keep the other. »
From the election of a new president next April, she does not expect much.
"I'm not even listening.
Promises are all very well, but in general we don't see much afterwards, ”she stings.
The professionals will be attentive to the verdict of the ballot boxes.
“Inheritance is a factor of inequality, it is obvious that I see every day, notes master Antoine Hurel.
It seems to me that inheritance tax should continue to exist.
In the vast majority of cases, it is not confiscatory.
Afterwards, when we arrive in slices of 30, 40%, it becomes a little unfair, and when we are at 60%, it is madness.
It is a complex question, on which we must find the right balance, because it can be counterproductive, like the wealth tax.
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Our file on the presidential
For all our interlocutors, there is a central notion around which everything must be built: inheritance is supposed to help, and not put the recipient in difficulty.
This is why Anne-Laure and her sister have decided, even if it means having to deal with these questions, to plan for their mother's succession.
“For our father, it fell on us.
We said to ourselves: “Not twice”.
Everything is now planned so that the sister can keep the maternal house without putting herself in the red.
"It's a bit at odds with my convictions, but if I don't do that, she won't have a roof over her head the day our mother is going to leave, almost apologizes the future mother.
It also takes a bit of accuracy, sometimes.
»
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