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No inheritance tax in Andorra, but France sometimes keeps its rights. The key points for French families.
Content reviewed by the legal and tax team of ProGestió Andorra — Last updated:
A French family settled in Andorra often hears a simple promise: “here, inheritance costs nothing.” That’s true, but incomplete. The absence of Andorran inheritance and gift tax does not automatically release heirs from their obligations toward the French tax authorities. It all depends on the deceased’s tax residence, the heirs’ tax residence, and where the assets are located. This article details the Andorran regime, the French rules that often still apply, and how estate structuring can work with both systems.
The Principality has never introduced a tax on inheritances or gifts. This absence of taxation is confirmed consistently by all specialized Andorran practitioners and firms: in Andorra, there is no wealth tax nor any tax on inheritances and gifts. In practical terms, the Principality levies no tribute on the free transfer of assets upon death or through gifts between individuals, and for an Andorran resident with assets located in Andorra, inheritance is taxed at 0%.
There is likewise no wealth tax in Andorra, which reinforces the coherence of the system: a family transferring Andorran assets faces neither annual taxation on holding them nor taxation at the time of transfer.
This exemption is not, however, a legal void: it stems from the absence of any text creating such a tax, rather than from a one-off exemption. Andorran inheritance law itself is governed by Llei 46/2014, del 18 de desembre, de la successió per causa de mort, which organizes the civil rules of transfer (order of heirs, legacies, succession pacts) without ever establishing a tax levy on the inheritance.
The Andorran exemption is not automatic simply because a connection with Andorra exists. Two cumulative conditions are generally required for a transfer to escape all taxation, in Andorra as elsewhere: the deceased must have been a tax resident of Andorra at the time of death, and the inherited assets must be located within the country (real estate in Andorran territory, accounts with banks of the Principality, etc.).
Conversely, if the heir is not themselves an Andorran tax resident, the situation becomes more complex: if the heir is not a tax resident in Andorra, for example if they live and pay taxes in Spain, they may have a legal obligation to declare and pay inheritance tax in their country of residence on assets inherited in Andorra. This is exactly the situation many French families find themselves in: the parent is an Andorran resident, but the children still live and work in France. In this case, the absence of Andorran taxation offers no protection whatsoever from French rules, which we detail below.
The absence of taxation does not mean total freedom to dispose of one’s assets. Andorran civil law imposes a forced heirship reserve in favor of descendants. Under the law on succession upon death, the deceased is required to reserve at least a quarter of their estate for their descendants. A comparable mechanism protects a surviving spouse lacking sufficient resources, in the form of a “quarta vidual.” This system of “legítima” and “quarta vidual” is explicitly named in the title of the 2014 Andorran law, which regulates provisions relating to legacies, the legítima and the fideicommissum on one hand, and on the other hand the foundations of succession rights — that is, contractual, testate and intestate succession — ultimately regulating the legítima and the quarta viudal as statutory entitlements.
For a French family, this means that a will drafted under Andorran law cannot fully disinherit a child, even though the tax logic actually encourages full freedom to transfer wealth.
This is where reality often catches up with families. In the absence of a Franco-Andorran tax treaty on inheritances (see below), it is French domestic law, and in particular Article 750 ter of the French General Tax Code (CGI), that determines whether France can tax a transfer. The text distinguishes three scenarios.
First, when the deceased’s tax domicile is in France, this principle applies both to assets located in France and to those located outside France: this is taxation on worldwide assets.
Second, inheritance tax is owed in France when the transferred assets are located in France, regardless of the domicile of the deceased or the heir. An apartment in Paris inherited by a family settled in Andorra therefore remains taxable in France.
Third, inheritance tax is owed in France when assets are received by a person whose tax domicile is in France, subject to a duration condition detailed in the next section. This third scenario is the one most poorly anticipated by families who have left France but whose children still reside there.
The third scenario of Article 750 ter does not apply to every French-resident heir: it requires an extended period of tax presence. This third branch is subject to two cumulative conditions: the heir must be tax-domiciled in France on the date of death, and must have been so for at least six years out of the previous ten, a period that does not need to be continuous.
This rule, introduced by the law of 29 July 2011, has a deliberately deterrent effect: if the heir or beneficiary has been tax-domiciled in France for at least 6 years during the last 10 years, Article 750 ter 3° of the CGI makes the entire estate received taxable in France, including foreign assets of a foreign deceased.
In concrete terms: parents who have been settled in Andorra for several years, whose assets are exclusively Andorran, leave an inheritance to a child who remained in France. If that child has been a French tax resident for at least six of the last ten years, the entire inheritance received, including Andorran assets, is taxable in France, under the standard French tax scale. Only a child who was not a French tax resident during that period, or who has themselves left France long enough ago, escapes this scenario.
A tax credit mechanism exists to limit double taxation, but its application is limited: Article 784 A of the CGI only addresses the elimination of double taxation in the scenarios covered by points 1° and 3° of Article 750 ter, that is, when the deceased was tax-domiciled in France, or when the heir or legatee is tax-domiciled in France. Since Andorra levies no inheritance tax, this tax credit has no practical effect for assets that remain entirely Andorran: there is nothing to offset.
When France regains the right to tax, the applicable scale is the standard one. In a direct line, the progressive scale has 7 brackets, from 5% to 45%, after an allowance of €100,000 per child and per parent, renewable every 15 years. Between siblings, the regime is notably less favorable: only two brackets, 35% up to €24,430 after allowance, then 45% beyond that. For more distant heirs, rates climb even higher: duties reach 55% for collateral relatives up to the 4th degree, and peak at 60% for more distant heirs or those with no family relationship.
This scale applies in Andorra in the same way as in France if one of the three scenarios of Article 750 ter is established: the Andorran location of the assets changes nothing.
| Situation | Andorra | France |
|---|---|---|
| Inheritance tax | None, regardless of family relationship | Progressive, 5% to 60% depending on family relationship |
| Gift tax between living persons | None | Same scales as inheritance, with their own allowances |
| Forced heirship reserve | One quarter of the estate for descendants (legítima), one quarter for a spouse without resources (quarta vidual) | Forced heirship reserve for children, disposable portion varies with their number |
| Condition for Andorran exemption | Deceased was an Andorran tax resident + assets located in Andorra | Not applicable: France taxes according to its own domestic law |
| Taxation if heir is a French resident 6 years out of 10 | No effect from Andorran side | Worldwide assets received become taxable (Art. 750 ter 3° CGI) |
Many families mistakenly believe that the France-Andorra tax treaty also covers inheritances. It does not. The official text, published by decree, specifies its own scope: the treaty applies to income taxes levied on behalf of a contracting state, and the current taxes to which it applies are, for France, income tax, corporate tax and corporate tax surcharges, and for Andorra, corporate tax, tax on income from economic activities, non-resident income tax, and tax on capital gains from real estate asset transfers. Inheritance and gift duties appear nowhere on this list.
This treaty, signed in Paris on 2 April 2013, entered into force on 1 July 2015, with practical application from 1 January 2016 for the income concerned. It deals with income (salaries, dividends, interest, royalties, business capital gains), not with the transfer of wealth. In the absence of an inheritance treaty, it is therefore solely French domestic law, through Article 750 ter, that determines whether France can tax an inheritance or gift involving an Andorran resident.
Given this framework, early estate structuring often changes the outcome, provided one thinks in terms of the long run. Three levers come up frequently in cases handled for families settled in Andorra:
These choices must always be validated on a case-by-case basis, since each heir’s personal situation (current residence, ten-year tax history, nationality) determines the final outcome.
Andorran assets are nonetheless not entirely free from indirect taxation. While the inheritance itself is not taxed, the transfer of real estate may fall under the Andorran tax on capital gains from real estate asset transfers, a tax distinct from inheritance duties, which applies to the capital gain realized on certain transfers rather than to the total value transferred. Gifts between close relatives generally benefit from specific exemptions provided for under this law, but the precise terms (degree of kinship covered, formal conditions) must be verified case by case with an Andorran notary before any deed is signed.
The most frequent scenario encountered by Andorran tax firms is this: parents transfer their tax residence to Andorra, while one or more children remain in France for their studies or careers. As long as these children have not accumulated six years of French tax residence out of the ten years preceding the death or gift, France cannot claim the right to tax the entirety of the Andorran assets received; only any French assets remain taxable, under the second scenario of Article 750 ter. But once that threshold is reached, the entire transferred estate, including Andorran assets, becomes taxable again in France under the standard tax scale. This is a binary threshold effect, one that deserves to be anticipated before it is triggered, not after.
Several mistakes recur regularly in cross-border Franco-Andorran cases. The first is believing that the deceased’s settlement in Andorra alone is enough to exempt all heirs: this is false as soon as an heir remains a French tax resident beyond the six-year threshold. The second is overlooking the fact that real estate located in France remains systematically taxable in France, regardless of the residence of the deceased or the heirs. The third is treating the France-Andorra tax treaty as an inheritance shield: it covers only income tax and related taxes, not gratuitous transfer duties.
If my parents are tax residents of Andorra, am I automatically exempt from inheritance tax in France? No. It all depends on your own tax residence. If you have not been a French tax resident for at least six of the last ten years preceding the inheritance, you are in principle exempt from French taxation on foreign assets received. Otherwise, the entire estate received may be taxed in France.
Is a gift made from Andorra to a child residing in France taxable? The gift itself is not taxed in Andorra. But if the recipient meets the six-out-of-ten-years French tax residence condition, Article 750 ter 3° of the CGI applies in the same way as for inheritances: France can tax all assets received, according to the French gift tax scale.
Is there a treaty between France and Andorra to avoid double taxation on inheritances? No. The only Franco-Andorran tax treaty in force, signed in 2013, covers exclusively income tax and related taxes. No text covers inheritance or gift duties between the two countries.
Does real estate located in France remain taxable if the whole family lives in Andorra? Yes. Article 750 ter of the CGI provides that assets located in France remain taxable in France, regardless of the tax domicile of the deceased or the heirs.
Can a child be fully disinherited by structuring one’s estate in Andorra? No. Andorran law requires a reserve of at least one quarter of the estate in favor of descendants (the “legítima”), whatever the content of the will.
Is a gift between living persons more advantageous than an inheritance in Andorra? From an Andorran standpoint, the two operations are treated identically: neither is taxed. The difference mainly plays out on the French side, depending on the beneficiary’s tax residence at the time of the transfer.
Figures and thresholds based on the regulations in force as of the publication date (1 October 2026), subject to legal changes. Please check with your advisor before making any decision.
To go further: Becoming a tax resident in Andorra, Tax residency in Andorra: the process, Wealth holding companies in Andorra, France-Andorra tax comparison 2026, International focus and wealth structuring in Andorra.
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