As from April 2009, a voluntary disclosure
programme has been implemented by the French tax authorities for a
limited period of time. French tax residents who want to regularise
their situation, particularly in case of unreported offshore bank
accounts, may approach the French tax authorities on a no-name
basis in order to find out what the tax cost would be.
1. Introduction
a. Legal environment
French law has no doctrine of trusts. Ownership attaches not to
an estate in land of various durations, but to the land itself. As
there is no distinction between legal and equitable estates,
creating a trust under French law is impossible. However, for over
100 years, French courts have agreed to recognise the effects in
France of trusts governed by the law of other countries. According
to French case law, foreign trusts are recognised as such and are
seen as a specific legal arrangement in their own right.
French law does not provide for grant of probate or letters of
administration. Instead, by operation of the law, the deceased’s
estate vests in the heirs immediately upon the testator’s
death.
As a general rule, French testators are limited in the
disposition of their estate by will because they cannot disregard
the reserved rights of certain heirs. The part of their estates
that the testator can bestow freely is called the ‘quotité
disponible’. The part reserved for specific heirs is called
the ‘réserve héréditaire’. The size of the reserve varies
according to the number of such heirs and their degree of
relationship to the testator.
The currency of France is the euro (EUR).