Dutreil pact: a practical transfer example

Updated March 2026 - The Dutreil regime is often cited but not always truly understood. Its principle is nevertheless simple: under certain conditions, it allows a 75% exemption on the value of transferred business shares for the purpose of gift or inheritance tax. What makes the subject difficult is not the formula itself. It is the legal and factual conditions behind it.

Take a company valued at EUR 2,000,000, transferred equally to two children.

Without the Dutreil regime, the gross taxable base is built on the full value of the shares, subject to the usual personal allowances.

With the Dutreil regime, the taxable base is reduced by 75%. The retained value therefore falls to EUR 500,000 before applying the other rules and any further allowances.

To place this mechanism in a broader strategy, see also our guides on family business transfer, donation-partage and the family holding structure.

The Dutreil regime is not only a tax calculation. It also requires:

• ▸a holding commitment;
• ▸an eligible business activity;
• ▸monitoring over time;
• ▸and, in some files, sensitive issues concerning the status of a holding company.

The example shows that the real leverage of Dutreil lies in the taxable-base effect. That is often what makes a family transfer economically feasible when it would otherwise be too heavy from a tax perspective.

Hayot Expertise insight: a Dutreil example only has value if the legal and factual conditions are satisfied. The danger is to reason on the tax benefit before securing the eligibility of the file.

A serious review should cover:

• ▸the nature of the business activity;
• ▸the shareholding structure;
• ▸whether the commitment is collective or deemed acquired;
• ▸the management role requirements;
• ▸the interaction with a donation-partage or a holding structure.

A generic example is useful for understanding the logic, but a real-life transfer should always be modelled on your own valuation, your own family structure and your own eligibility conditions.

We can build a tailored model based on your valuation and test whether the regime can be used properly.

Model your Dutreil transfer scenario

The Dutreil pact can radically change the tax cost of a transfer. But the numerical example is only a starting point. Real security comes from checking the conditions and monitoring the commitments over time.

Do you want a Dutreil example adapted to your company rather than a generic textbook case? We can model the transfer and test the eligibility of the structure. Book an appointment with an expert