Wealth transfer · Gift partition

Cross-generational gift partition in France: passing assets straight to the grandchildren

Since 1 January 2007, a French grandparent can share out assets between children and grandchildren in a single deed (donation-partage transgénérationnelle), provided that the child concerned consents to his or her own children being allotted in his or her place. The deed can take back a gift made to the child years ago and allot it to a grandchild: if that gift is more than fifteen years old, only the 2.50% partition duty is due on the asset. The firm prepares these deeds with the family’s notary, starting by making sure that they will indeed operate as a partition.

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How can a grandparent pass assets directly to grandchildren through a French gift partition?

The French Civil Code allows a person to share out his or her assets between descendants of different generations (art. 1075-1). The child who waives all or part of his or her rights and the descendants who benefit both consent in the deed, the descendants being allotted in the child’s place in whole or in part (art. 1078-4 and 1078-5). The partition is made by family branch (souche, art. 1078-6), with separately owned lots (grandchildren may be allotted jointly, art. 1078-4); otherwise the deed may be recharacterised as a simple gift.

Gift tax is computed on the relationship between grandparent and grandchild (CGI, art. 784 B), with an allowance of €31,865 (art. 790 B). An asset given to the child and re-allotted to the child’s descendant bears only the partition duty if the original gift is at least fifteen years old; otherwise gift tax is due, less the tax paid on the original gift (art. 776 A).

Civil Code, art. 1075-1; art. 1078-4; CGI, art. 776 A; art. 784 B; BOI-ENR-DMTG-20-20-10, § 160 to 230 (in French). Checked on 5 November 2026.

— In brief
Provisions
Civil Code, art. 1075-1 and 1078-4 to 1078-10; CGI, art. 776 A and 784 B
Consent
Given in the deed by the child who waives all or part of his or her rights and by the descendants who benefit (art. 1078-5)
Gift tax
Direct-line scale between grandparent and grandchild, €31,865 allowance (CGI, art. 790 B), look-back of gifts made within fifteen years (art. 784)
Asset taken back
2.50% partition duty if the original gift is at least fifteen years old; gift tax less the tax already paid otherwise (art. 776 A)
Pitfall
An undivided share between children defeats the partition (Cass. 1re civ., 2 July 2025, no. 23-16.329)
— 02 · Civil law

What conditions does the French Civil Code set?

Articles 1078-4 to 1078-10 of the Civil Code, in force since 1 January 2007, are cited in their version as at 5 November 2026. Quotations are our translations.

  • Descendants of different generations. “Any person may also distribute and share out his or her property and rights between descendants of different degrees, whether or not they are his or her presumptive heirs” (Civil Code, art. 1075-1). The deed remains a gift partition even if the ascendant has only one child (art. 1078-5).
  • The child’s consent. The children “may consent to their own descendants being allotted in their place, in whole or in part”; grandchildren may be allotted separately or jointly (art. 1078-4). Consent is given in the deed by the child who waives all or part of his or her rights and by the descendants who benefit; the gift is void if the waiving child’s consent was vitiated by mistake, fraud or duress (art. 1078-5).
  • Partition by branch. The partition is made by family branch, and grandchildren may be allotted in some branches and not in others (art. 1078-6). One child can receive a lot while a sibling steps aside in favour of his or her own children.
  • Taking back earlier gifts. A beneficiary’s lot may be made up of gifts already received from the donor, whether subject to collation (rapportables) or made outside the beneficiary’s share (hors part); the valuation date of the partition applies to those gifts, and “any contrary stipulation shall be deemed unwritten” (art. 1078-1). These agreements, possible even without any new gift, are treated as a partition made by the donor (art. 1078-3) and are open to cross-generational partitions (art. 1078-7).
  • In the grandparent’s estate. The assets received are charged against the branch’s reserved portion, then against the freely disposable portion (quotité disponible); all gifts to members of the same branch are charged together. They are valued at the date of the deed (art. 1078) where all the children consented to the partition, the reserved heirs received and expressly accepted a lot, and no usufruct over a sum of money was reserved; a branch that received no lot, or too small a lot, is made whole under articles 1077-1 and 1077-2, the action for abatement (action en réduction) being available only if the assets not included in the partition are insufficient to make up its reserved portion (art. 1078-8).
  • In the estate of the consenting child. The assets received by his or her descendants are treated as if received from the child, and follow the rules on lifetime gifts for notional addition, charging, collation and abatement; if all the child’s descendants received and accepted a lot, with no usufruct over a sum of money, they are treated as received by gift partition (art. 1078-9). These rules give way if the child later makes his or her own gift partition incorporating those assets (art. 1078-10).
— 03 · Tax

What duties are payable on the deed?

On newly given assets, a gift partition bears French gift tax (droits de mutation à titre gratuit), to the exclusion of the partition duty; where the deed also takes back assets already given, those bear the partition duty (BOI-ENR-DMTG-20-20-10, § 10 and 170). The cross-generational form adds its own rules.

  • The relationship that counts. “In the case of a gift partition made to descendants of different degrees, duties are computed according to the relationship between the donor ascendant and the descendants allotted” (CGI, art. 784 B). The grandchild benefits from the direct-line scale (art. 777) and from a €31,865 allowance (art. 790 B), not from the parent’s €100,000 allowance (art. 779).
  • The fifteen-year look-back. Gifts made by the same grandparent to the same grandchild within the previous fifteen years are added back for the scale, and allowances already used on them are taken into account (art. 784). Exempt gifts of money up to €31,865 (donor under eighty, beneficiary of full age or emancipated) are cumulative with that allowance and are not added back (art. 790 G).
  • An asset taken back from a gift at least fifteen years old. That is, a gift not made less than fifteen years before the gift partition, checked from date to date. Agreements taking back earlier gifts “are not subject to gift tax”, including where the asset is re-allotted, in a cross-generational partition, to a descendant of the first donee: “this transaction is subject to the partition duty” (CGI, art. 776 A), at 2.50% (art. 746), on the value of the asset at the date it is taken back (BOI-ENR-DMTG-20-20-10, § 180). The asset may also be one acquired by investing or reinvesting the original gift, which the parties must prove (same paragraph).
  • An asset taken back from a gift less than fifteen years old. By way of exception, where the original gift to the child was made less than fifteen years earlier and the asset is re-allotted to a descendant of that child, gift tax is due on the relationship between grandparent and grandchild, and the tax paid on the first gift in respect of that asset is credited against the tax due (art. 776 A, third paragraph). If the first gift also covered other assets, the asset taken back is deemed to have fallen in the highest brackets; any excess of tax paid is not refunded (BOI-ENR-DMTG-20-20-10, § 190).
  • Allotment to another branch. Article 776 A refers to re-allotment to a descendant of the first donee, and the tax authorities’ guidance describes it as taking place “within the same branch” (§ 180); neither the statute nor any published position expressly deals with an asset given to one child and then allotted to the grandchild of another child. The firm does not recommend this arrangement without first costing the possibility that gift tax is charged and, where appropriate, seeking an advance ruling (rescrit) from the tax authorities.
— 04 · Example

What does a cross-generational gift partition cost in a fictitious case?

The facts. A mother of two children, A and B, gave A a flat in 2008 that is now worth €400,000. In 2026, she signs a gift partition that takes back the flat and adds €1,200,000 of securities. The pool shared out is €1,600,000, or €800,000 per branch. A consents to his two adult children, P1 and P2, being allotted in his place for the whole: P1 receives the flat, P2 receives €400,000 of securities. B receives €800,000 of securities himself. No other gift has been made in the last fifteen years.

The duties. For P1, the flat comes from a gift at least fifteen years old re-allotted within A’s branch: only the partition duty is due, 2.50% of €400,000, i.e. €10,000. For P2, €400,000 less the €31,865 allowance leaves €368,135 taxable, i.e. €71,821 on the direct-line scale. For B, €800,000 less €100,000 leaves €700,000 taxable, i.e. €152,962.

The comparison. Had A received the €400,000 of securities himself, he would have paid €58,194 thanks to his €100,000 allowance, i.e. €13,627 less than P2; but passing them on to P2 later would cost a further €58,194. By skipping a generation, the family pays €71,821 instead of about €116,400 over two successive transfers, and the assets of A’s branch stay out of his own estate. Since the 2008 gift is at least fifteen years old, the deed does not use up the allowance A has in respect of his mother either.

The variant. Had the flat been given to A in 2016, P1 would owe gift tax on €400,000, based on the relationship with the grandmother and after the €31,865 allowance, less the tax A paid in 2016 on that flat. These figures are fictitious, exclude deed costs, and assume stable values between the two generations.

— 05 · Before the courts

When is a gift partition called into question?

The decisions below concern gift partitions between children; they apply all the more to a cross-generational deed, which involves more parties. All are rulings of the first civil chamber of the French Court of cassation (Cour de cassation).

  • An undivided lot between children defeats the partition. By a 1971 deed, parents had allotted to three of their four children separate plots of land and, to each, an undivided third of a house. The Court holds that there is a gift partition only where the ascendant makes a physical distribution of his or her assets between descendants, “who, save in the case provided for in article 1078-4 of the Civil Code, may not be allotted jointly”, and upholds the recharacterisation as a simple gift subject to collation (Cass. 1re civ., 2 July 2025, no. 23-16.329, published in the Bulletin). The ruling does not concern a cross-generational deed and does not say how far the article 1078-4 exception extends in light of partition by branch (art. 1078-6): as a precaution, the firm confines joint allotment to grandchildren of the same branch and avoids any asset held undivided between branches.
  • The same outcome for undivided rights alone. A deed that only grants undivided rights to five beneficiaries is, as regards them, a lifetime gift creating a contractual co-ownership (Cass. 1re civ., 6 March 2013, no. 11-21.892, published in the Bulletin).
  • The partition rests on the ascendant’s will alone. A father had given his four children undivided rights in a collection of works of art, then shared them out by a second deed that two children refused to sign. A gift partition made in two stages (art. 1076) “is not an ordinary partition that the recipients could challenge”; it is formed as soon as one of the children has accepted his or her lot, and the others’ refusal has no effect on its validity and enforceability (Cass. 1re civ., 13 February 2019, no. 18-11.642, published in the Bulletin).
  • What recharacterisation costs. In a dispute where an heir sought to have a gift partition recharacterised as simple gifts subject to collation, the Court refused to refer a priority question of constitutionality on the collation of an asset sold and replaced (Civil Code, art. 860, second paragraph); it noted that the deed of gift may derogate “both from the obligation of collation and from the rules for valuing the collation indemnity” (Cass. 1re civ., 14 February 2024, no. 23-19.059, QPC, published in the Bulletin). The appeal was later dismissed without specific reasons (Cass. 1re civ., 15 January 2025, no. 23-19.059, ECLI:FR:CCASS:2025:C110023).
— 01

Why transfer directly to the grandchildren?

When the children are already established, a gift they receive often just passes through their estate before being transferred again, with a second charge to tax. Here the grandparent allots the grandchildren directly, with their parent’s agreement.

The deed is also a way to reorganise old gifts: a flat given to a child twenty years ago can be allotted to one of that child’s children for the partition duty alone. It can moreover fix the value of the lots at the date of the deed for the purposes of the reserved portion (réserve héréditaire), the share of the estate French law guarantees to children, provided in particular that all the children consented and the lots were received and accepted (art. 1078 and 1078-8).

It is not always cheaper in the short term. A grandchild’s allowance is €31,865, against €100,000 for a child. The benefit is therefore measured over both generations, taking account of the age and wealth of the consenting parent.

— 06

Which clauses should the deed contain?

The deed is prepared with the notary, who executes it; the firm settles its structure, clauses and figures.

Separately owned lots for each beneficiary

Each child or grandchild receives assets in sole ownership. An asset held undivided between two branches should be avoided; if it cannot be divided, it can first be contributed to a company, each beneficiary receiving a set number of shares. Grandchildren of the same branch may, for their part, be allotted jointly (art. 1078-4).

Informed and dated consent

The child who steps aside consents in the deed, aware of what he or she is giving up. The firm records in the deed the value of the assets allotted to that child’s children and how they are charged against the branch’s reserved portion (art. 1078-5 and 1078-8). Vitiated consent makes the gift void.

Valuation and collation clauses

Gifts taken back are valued at the date of the partition, any contrary stipulation being deemed unwritten (art. 1078-1). In case the deed is recharacterised as a simple gift, provide for a waiver of collation and the valuation rules the grandparent wants, which the Court accepts (QPC of 14 February 2024).

Evidence of age and reinvestment

Attach the deed of the original gift, its date, the tax paid and, where relevant, evidence of reinvestment: this file decides between partition duty and gift tax with a credit.

Advance waiver of the action for abatement

The consent under article 1078-5 only covers the allotment of the child’s own descendants. If a reserved heir must waive the right to challenge a gift made to someone else, the advance waiver of the action for abatement (renonciation anticipée à l’action en réduction, art. 929) is made in favour of specified persons and binds the waiving heir only once accepted by the grandparent; it requires a specific notarial deed executed before two notaries, signed separately by each waiving heir in the presence of the notaries alone and stating its consequences (art. 930); it is not subject to gift tax (CGI, art. 756 bis).

— 07

Our approach

The firm first reconstructs the family’s gifts over the past fifteen years, then costs several possible distributions between children and grandchildren, comparing the immediate cost with the cost over two generations. We then draft, with the notary, the consent, take-back and valuation clauses.

Where part of the family lives outside France, we coordinate the deed with the law governing the succession and with any tax in the other country, as explained on our page on estate planning in France.

— Frequently asked questions

Cross-generational gift partition: your questions

Does the grandchild benefit from the parent’s €100,000 allowance?

No. Gift tax is computed on the relationship between grandparent and grandchild (CGI, art. 784 B): the allowance is €31,865 (art. 790 B) and the direct-line scale applies.

Can an earlier gift partition, rather than a simple gift, be taken back?

Article 1078-1 only refers to gifts subject to collation or made outside the beneficiary’s share. The tax authorities nevertheless accept applying article 776 A to an earlier gift partition taken back (ministerial answer Ceccaldi-Raynaud, no. 115883, JO AN 8 November 2011, p. 11832, reproduced in BOI-ENR-DMTG-20-20-10, § 180).

What happens if a child receives no lot?

If the descendants of a branch received no lot, or a lot smaller than their reserved portion, they are made whole on the grandparent’s death, through the action for abatement if not enough unpartitioned assets remain (Civil Code, art. 1078-8, 1077-1 and 1077-2). The action is time-barred five years after the death.

Can a flat given to the child ten years ago be re-allotted to the grandchild?

Yes, but the gift is less than fifteen years old: the grandchild pays gift tax based on the relationship with the grandparent, less the tax the parent paid on that asset, with no refund of any excess (CGI, art. 776 A; BOI-ENR-DMTG-20-20-10, § 190).

Can the grandparent reserve a life interest?

Yes; gift tax is then computed on the bare ownership only, using the scale in article 669 of the CGI (BOI-ENR-DMTG-20-20-10, § 50). A reserved usufruct over a sum of money, however, rules out valuing the lots at the date of the deed (Civil Code, art. 1078-8 and 1078-9). See our page on usufruct and bare ownership.

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The information on this page is provided for documentary purposes and does not constitute legal or tax advice. The worked examples are fictitious. Law as at 5 November 2026.