Droits de mutation
Paris was the first department to use the 2025 Finance Act option, lifting its departmental rate from 4,50 % to 5,00 % for deeds signed from 1 April 2025 and in force to 31 March 2028. With the 1,20 % communal tax and the 2,37 % collection levy on the departmental share, the total is 6,32 %. First-time buyers of a main home are excluded from the increase and pay 5,81 %. New-build first sales pay 0,715 % instead, with 20 % TVA already inside the price.
Émoluments du notaire
A regulated regressive scale, not a negotiable fee: 3,870 % to €6 500, then 1,596 % to €17 000, 1,064 % to €60 000, and 0,799 % above, plus 20 % TVA. Since 2021 a notary may discount up to 20 % of the émoluments attributable to the slice of price above €100 000 — worth asking for on a large purchase. Add the 0,10 % contribution de sécurité immobilière and roughly €1 200 of disbursements.
Taxe foncière and taxe d'habitation
Both are assessed on a cadastral rental value that bears little relation to market price, so this tool uses a €/m² estimate you should replace with the seller's actual bill. Paris raised its taxe foncière rate from 13,50 % to 20,50 % in 2023. Taxe d'habitation no longer applies to main homes, but second homes pay it and Paris applies the maximum 60 % surcharge.
IFI — the million-euro question
The wealth tax on property bites when net taxable real estate exceeds €1 300 000 on 1 January. Net is the operative word: outstanding mortgage principal is deductible and a main residence gets a 30 % allowance. Once you cross, the scale applies from €800 000 — 0,50 % to €1,3 M, 0,70 % to €2,57 M, 1 % to €5 M, 1,25 % to €10 M, then 1,50 % — with a smoothing rebate between €1,3 M and €1,4 M. A heavily mortgaged purchase can sit under the threshold on day one and cross it years later as the loan amortises, which is why the projection marks the crossing year.
Resident, non-resident, citizen
French tax residence — home, main stay, professional activity, or centre of economic interests — is what moves the numbers. Nationality on its own changes little. Where it does matter: social charges on rent and gains fall from 17,2 % to 7,5 % if you are covered by an EU, EEA or Swiss social security scheme; non-residents from outside the EU/EEA must appoint an accredited représentant fiscal to sell above €150 000; and non-EU buyers need a long-stay visa to actually live in what they bought.
Arriving in France changes the IFI base
Become French tax resident and IFI reaches your worldwide property — your house in Austin counts. Article 964 of the tax code shields newcomers: anyone non-resident for the five previous calendar years is taxed on French property only, for the five years following arrival. That window is the single best planning opportunity an arriving expat has, and it closes on a date, not on a transaction.
Rental income
Non-residents face a minimum 20 % French income-tax rate on rental profit, plus social charges. Unfurnished letting under €15 000 gross can use micro-foncier and its 30 % allowance; régime réel instead deducts interest, charges, taxe foncière, insurance and management, which usually wins on a mortgaged purchase and can throw up a déficit foncier of up to €10 700 against other income. Furnished letting runs through micro-BIC at a 50 % allowance. Paris caps rents through encadrement des loyers; short-term letting needs a registration number, a changement d'usage with commercial compensation for anything that is not your main home, and a 120-night ceiling if it is.
Capital gains on exit
19 % income tax plus social charges on the net gain, with a surtax of 2–6 % above €50 000. Allowances for length of ownership start in year 6 and reach full exemption at 22 years for income tax, 30 for social charges. The acquisition cost is uplifted by actual purchase costs or a flat 7,5 %, plus a flat 15 % for works once held beyond five years. A French tax resident selling their main home is exempt outright.
Succession — the one people miss
French law reserves a fixed share of an estate for children and overrides a foreign will by default. EU Succession Regulation 650/2012 lets you elect the law of your nationality instead, but the election must be made expressly and in writing while you are alive. French inheritance tax between unrelated people reaches 60 %, and step-children and unmarried partners are treated as strangers.
American expats: the second tax return
US citizens and green-card holders file on worldwide income wherever they live, so every French number here has a dollar twin. The Foreign Earned Income Exclusion covers wages only — rental profit and capital gains are never sheltered by it. The France–US treaty gives France the primary right to tax French property income and gains, and the US relieves double taxation by credit on Form 1116; since 2019 the IRS has accepted CSG and CRDS as creditable income taxes rather than social security contributions, which materially improves the arithmetic.
Where the credit runs out
Three leaks. The 3,8 % Net Investment Income Tax is not creditable against foreign tax, so it stacks on top. Most states give no foreign tax credit at all — California taxes the gain in full. And IFI is a wealth tax, not an income tax, so it earns no US credit whatsoever: it is pure extra cost.
The dollar measures a different gain
The IRS computes basis and proceeds in dollars at the spot rate on each date, so a flat euro price can still produce a taxable dollar gain purely from currency movement — or wipe out a real euro gain. French taper relief has no US equivalent, so the longer you hold the more likely it is that France taxes nothing, you have no credit to claim, and the entire dollar gain lands on your US return. Paying down a euro mortgage with a strengthened dollar can also trigger section 988 currency gain on the debt itself.
Other US tripwires
Section 121 can exclude $250 000 of gain, $500 000 if married filing jointly, on a foreign home that was your main residence for two of the last five years. Depreciation on foreign residential rental runs over 30 years under ADS, is mandatory, and is recaptured on sale whether or not you claimed it. The TCJA abolished the deduction for foreign real property taxes, so your taxe foncière is not deductible, though mortgage interest on up to $750 000 of qualified-residence debt still is. An SCI — the standard French succession wrapper — may be a foreign corporation or partnership for US purposes, dragging in Form 5471 or 8865, Form 8858, and possible PFIC treatment; check the box before you sign, not after. FBAR covers French accounts over $10 000 aggregate and Form 8938 has its own thresholds. Finally, the US taxes worldwide estates, and the 1978 France–US estate tax treaty is what keeps the same assets from being taxed twice.