Real-estate inheritance: taxes and duties to pay in 2026

Quick answer. On a real-estate inheritance in the direct line, each child benefits from a 100,000 euro allowance on the share received from each parent, then the progressive scale of 5% to 45% applies. The surviving spouse and the civil-partnership partner are fully exempt. The main residence enjoys a 20% allowance if occupied by the spouse or a child. Anticipating through gifts and split ownership remains the best lever for reduction.

Passing on a real-estate estate on death raises a concrete question: how much will the heirs have to pay? Inheritance duties can be heavy on real estate, but they are calculated under precise rules and reduced by anticipation. Here is how the taxation works in 2026 and which levers to use.

The calculation of duties starts with the allowance applicable to each heir, which depends on their relationship with the deceased.

In the direct line, each child benefits from a 100,000 euro allowance on the share they receive from each parent (Tax Code art. 779). The surviving spouse and the civil-partnership partner have been fully exempt from duties since the TEPA law of 2007. Other heirs benefit from lower allowances, for example for siblings or nephews and nieces, and a reduced minimum allowance by default.

These allowances rebuild every 15 years for gifts, which opens an anticipation strategy that inheritance alone does not allow. This is the whole point of passing on during one's lifetime.

After the allowance, the net taxable share is subject to a progressive scale.

In the direct line, this scale runs from 5% for the first band to 45% for the highest fraction (Tax Code art. 777). The intermediate 20% band covers a very wide range, which makes it the rate borne by the majority of average real-estate inheritances. The calculation is made share by share: each heir applies their own allowance, then the scale on the balance.

The main residence benefits from a special treatment that lightens the taxable base.

Its value is reduced by 20% for the calculation of duties when, on the day of death, it is occupied as a main residence by the surviving spouse, the civil partner, or a minor or protected adult child of the deceased (Tax Code art. 764 bis). This allowance applies to the market value before allocation between heirs, which benefits the whole estate.

This rule recognises the difficulty of quickly mobilising an occupied dwelling, and it remains in force in 2026.

The best way to reduce inheritance duties is to anticipate, because a suffered inheritance offers little room.

Giving during one's lifetime allows the 100,000 euro allowance to be used every 15 years, several times over a lifetime. Split ownership reinforces the effect: by giving the bare ownership and keeping the usufruct, you transmit a reduced base under the age scale, and full ownership rebuilds free of duty on death, as our article on split ownership explains. Gift-division freezes values between heirs and prevents conflicts, a subject detailed in our guide on the gift-division.

A temporary scheme deserves attention in 2026: an exceptional family gift of 100,000 euros is exempt, until 31 December 2026, when it finances the purchase or construction of a new main residence or eligible energy renovation works. It is a window to seize for the families concerned.

Inheritance duties on real estate are not discovered on the day of death: they are prepared years ahead. An anticipated transmission through staggered gifts and split ownership often reduces duties dramatically, where inaction leaves heirs facing a brutal bill, sometimes payable while the asset is not yet sold.

Our approach is to map the estate, project the duties in the absence of anticipation, then build a gift calendar using allowances and split ownership. For rental real estate, holding the assets in an SCI makes this strategy far more flexible, because you pass on shares rather than an indivisible property. Anticipating means turning a suffered charge into a controlled transmission.

A mother held a rental building and her main residence, having anticipated nothing. On her death, her two children discovered significant duties, the estate far exceeding the allowances, and had to consider a sale to pay them. The simulation showed that a gift of the bare ownership fifteen years earlier, combined with renewed allowances, would have reduced the duties by more than half. The episode served as a lesson for the next generation, which promptly started a strategy of gradual transmission of its own estate.