It is not said enough, but settling an estate can cost a fortune to a family already tried. Tens of thousands of euros that go into tax costs, sometimes on goods passed down from generation to generation. What few people know is that there is a perfectly legal strategy to limit — or even remove — these rights. And the most surprising? It is accessible to everyone, provided you act at the right time.
Bare ownership and usufruit: two words that can save you big
The principle is based on a technique called property dismemberment. In concrete terms, it is a question of giving his children the bare ownership of a property during his lifetime, while retaining the usufruct.
Difficult to visualize? Here’s how it works in practice:
– The bare-property is the right to own a property “on paper”, without being able to inhabit it or collect the income. – The usufruct is the right to use it: to live there, to rent it, to receive the rents.
In other words, you pass on the property to your children, but you continue to live there quietly. You don’t “strip” at all. And at the time of your death, your children automatically become full owners — without paying inheritance tax on this property.
A concrete example to understand
Let’s imagine a property worth 400 000 euros, transmitted to two children. If the donation of the property is carried out at 60 years, the tax scale estimates it at 50% of the value of the property, i.e. 200 000 euros. Divided by two children, each receives 100 000 euros of bare property.
However, in France, each child benefits from a reduction of 100 000 euros every 15 years on parental donations. Result : zero euro of fees to be paid.
Same operation at 75? The bare property then represents 70% of the property, i.e. 280 000 euros, or 140 000 euros per child. Each child pays fees on 40 000 euros — about 8 000 euros each. It is not neutral.
