Disclaimer: This article is for general information only and does not constitute legal, tax, or financial advice. French capital gains tax on real property (plus-value immobilière) is governed by the Code général des impôts and the UK-France double-tax convention; rates, abattements, and the position of UK residents post-Brexit have moved several times in the past five years. Always consult a qualified French notaire, avocat fiscaliste, or chartered accountant before acting on anything you read here. The English Investor accepts no liability for decisions taken on the basis of this article.
Sooner or later, every British owner of a French property faces the same decision: when to sell, and what the French tax bill on the gain is going to look like. The reputation precedes the law: French capital gains tax (the plus-value immobilière) is supposedly extortionate and Byzantine. Some of that reputation is earned — the headline rate for a UK seller without UK national-insurance affiliation is 36.2% in 2026 (a figure that was preserved by the loi de financement de la sécurité sociale 2026, which raised CSG generally but expressly excluded real-estate gains from the increase), and the system layers a separate “social charges” regime on top of an “income tax” regime with two different abattement schedules running in parallel. But it is also predictable, it rewards long holding periods so heavily that a 30-year-old property is sold tax-free, and a UK resident affiliated to UK national-insurance can in many cases drop the social-charges layer to 7.5% — bringing the total down to 26.5%. This article walks through the entire mechanism for a UK resident selling French real estate in 2026, including the post-Brexit position on social charges, the 2026 update to the loueur en meublé professionnel rules, and the obligation to appoint a représentant fiscal accrédité. For the wider tax calendar that this collides with, our French tax deadlines 2026 guide is the reference; for the wealth-tax angle that frequently sits alongside the sale, our guide to the IFI walks through the French wealth tax on real estate.
The starting point: French-source income and the treaty
The foundational rule for any UK seller is the one set out by impots.gouv.fr — the French tax administration’s official portal — which states that “en tant que non-résident, vous êtes imposable sur vos revenus de source française sous réserve des dispositions de la convention conclue entre la France et votre État de résidence“. Capital gains on French real property are explicitly listed alongside rental income, professional income earned in France, and pensions as French-source income subject to French tax. The UK-France double-tax convention then refines the position, but does not displace France’s primary right to tax the gain on a French-situs asset. So the starting answer for any British seller is: yes, you owe French CGT on the sale, computed under French rules.
The two parallel regimes: “private” plus-value and “professional” plus-value
Before getting into rates, it matters which of two distinct regimes applies to your sale. French law treats real-estate gains under one of two heads:
- The private regime (plus-values des particuliers), governed by articles 150 U et seq. of the Code général des impôts (CGI). This is the default. It applies when the property is held as a private investment, whether directly by the individual or through a non-trading entity such as a tax-transparent SCI à l’IR.
- The professional regime (plus-values professionnelles), governed by the BIC rules at article 39 duodecies CGI and the LMP rules at article 155 IV-2 CGI. This applies where the property is held as part of a furnished-rental activity carried on as a profession (loueur en meublé professionnel), or held by an SCI subject to corporate income tax (IS).
The default for almost every British landlord is the private regime. The professional regime usually applies only to two specific cases: long-term furnished rentals where the LMP threshold is met, and properties held by an SCI à l’IS. Most of this article focuses on the private regime; we cover the LMP carve-out separately further down because the loi de finances 2026 made an important change there for non-residents.
The headline rate for non-residents in 2026
For a non-resident UK seller under the private regime, the gross gain is taxed in two layers that share a base but apply different rates and different abattements:
- Income tax: 19% on the gain, under article 244 bis A of the CGI which sets the special rate for sales of French real estate by non-residents
- Prélèvements sociaux: 17.2% on the same gain, under article L. 136-7 of the Code de la sécurité sociale (9.2% CSG, 0.5% CRDS, and 7.5% prélèvement de solidarité). The 2026 loi de financement de la sécurité sociale raised the general CSG rate from 9.2% to 10.6% under article 12 (modifying article L. 136-8 CSS), but the new rate expressly excludes plus-values immobilières — including those realised by non-residents under article L. 136-7, I, 2° CSS. The 9.2% CSG component is therefore preserved on real-estate gains in 2026, and the combined PS layer remains 17.2%
The combined headline rate for a UK seller with no link to a French or EU/EEA social-security regime is therefore 36.2% in 2026 (19% + 17.2%). On top of that, gains above €50,000 attract a progressive surtax under article 1609 nonies G CGI: 2% on the slice between €50,000 and €100,000, climbing to 6% on the slice above €260,000. The surtax has its own anti-avoidance rules and only applies to the net taxable gain after abattements, so it bites less often than first appearances suggest.
The “gain” itself is calculated as the difference between the sale price and the acquisition cost, with both adjusted: the acquisition cost can include notary fees and registration duty (a flat 7.5% if no actual receipts are produced), commission on the original purchase, and capital improvement works (either with receipts or, after five years of ownership, on a flat 15% allowance). The mechanics of the calculation matter — done well, the taxable base can be 20-30% lower than a naïve “sale minus original purchase”.
The abattement schedule: why long holding wins
This is where the system rewards patience. The taxable base is reduced by an abattement that grows with the holding period — but the schedule is different for the income-tax layer and the social-charges layer. This is the single biggest factor in any British seller’s decision-making.
For the 19% income tax (article 150 VC CGI): no reduction in the first five years; from year 6 to year 21, the base is reduced by 6% per year; in year 22, the final 4% drops away — full exemption from income tax at 22 complete years of ownership.
For the social-charges layer (article L. 136-7 CSS): no reduction in the first five years; from year 6 to year 21, the base is reduced by 1.65% per year; in year 22, by 1.6%; from year 23 to year 30, by 9% per year — full exemption from social charges at 30 complete years of ownership.
Between year 22 and year 30, you pay only the social-charges layer (17.2% for UK sellers outside the de Ruyter carve-out, 7.5% for those within it). After year 30, the sale is fully tax-free in France. For most British owners who bought in the 2000s or earlier, the seemingly steep headline rate has already eroded substantially — and a 25-year-holder pays only social charges on a heavily-discounted base.
Brexit and the UK national-insurance carve-out: 26.5% for many UK sellers
The most consequential point on social charges for British sellers is one that’s surprisingly well-settled but poorly understood: UK residents do not necessarily pay the full 17.2% social-charges layer post-Brexit. The partial exemption is codified in article L. 136-7, I ter of the Code de la sécurité sociale, which provides that taxpayers who, by application of EU Regulation (EC) 883/2004 of 29 April 2004 on the coordination of social-security systems, fall under another state’s health-insurance legislation and are not covered by a mandatory French social-security regime, are not liable for CSG or CRDS on plus-values immobilières — only the 7.5% prélèvement de solidarité applies.
The French tax administration’s binding doctrine on the point is set out in BOFiP BOI-RFPI-PVINR-20-20, which spells out the practical conditions: the seller must be affiliated to a non-French health-insurance regime under the EU coordination rules and must not be a beneficiary of any French mandatory regime. For UK residents, the carve-out remains practically available post-Brexit through the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement’s Protocol on Social Security Coordination, which essentially preserves the Regulation 883/2004 mechanics between the UK and the EU.
For UK sellers who meet the conditions — affiliation to UK national-insurance, nationality or legal residence in France/UK/EU, and no coverage under a French regime — the social-charges layer collapses from 17.2% to just 7.5%. The combined headline rate then becomes 26.5% (19% + 7.5%) rather than 36.2%. For most British landlords still paying UK NI on UK income, this is the rate that actually applies. Documenting the UK NI affiliation at the moment of sale is the work to do — the notaire’s office or your représentant fiscal will request a UK form A1 (or equivalent NI documentation) before applying the reduced rate. The underlying jurisprudential foundation is the 2015 Court of Justice of the European Union ruling in de Ruyter (CJEU C-623/13), which held that France cannot apply French social charges to a person already affiliated to another coordinated state’s social-security regime.
UK residents who do not meet those conditions — typically retirees who are no longer paying UK NI, or those who have moved their tax residence outside the UK and the EU after the sale — pay the full 17.2% PS, for a 36.2% combined rate. The single most important question for any UK seller to answer before completion is therefore which side of this line they fall on.
The représentant fiscal accrédité: mandatory CGT agent over €150,000
For non-EU/EEA-resident sellers (which now includes UK residents), French law imposes a procedural requirement that catches many British sellers by surprise. Under article 244 bis A of the CGI and the implementing décret, where the sale price exceeds €150,000, the non-resident seller must appoint a représentant fiscal accrédité — a French entity formally accredited by the French tax administration that takes joint and several liability for the CGT bill alongside the seller.
The représentant fiscal is typically an accredited firm (a specialised provider, an accountancy firm, or sometimes the notaire’s network). Their fee is normally negotiable but typically falls between 0.4% and 1% of the sale price. There is no opt-out: a sale closing without an appointed représentant fiscal will be blocked at the notaire stage and will not complete. The exemption thresholds are:
- Sales below €150,000: no représentant fiscal required
- Sales of properties held for more than 30 years (already fully exempt from CGT): no représentant fiscal required
- Sales eligible for the résidence principale exemption: not generally available to non-residents but specific narrow exceptions exist under article 150 U-II-2° CGI for former residents
The principal-residence exemption deserves a footnote of its own: in narrow circumstances, a non-resident who previously had their primary residence in the property and meets specific holding-period and ownership conditions can claim a full exemption capped at €150,000 of net gain, under article 150 U-II-2° CGI. This is a real planning lever for British owners who lived in their French property at some point — but the conditions are tightly drawn and the exemption is granted only once per lifetime.
The LMP exception (and what loi de finances 2026 just changed for non-residents)
Before getting into the substance: this section sits inside a CGT article because LMP status is the switch that determines which CGT regime applies at the moment of sale. A landlord classified as LMNP at the time of sale falls under the private plus-value regime — the articles 150 U et seq. mechanics covered in the rest of this guide. A landlord classified as LMP at the time of sale falls under the professional plus-value regime, governed by articles 151 septies and 151 septies B CGI, with a different abattement schedule, the recapture of depreciation taken over the holding period, and a different social-charges treatment. The 2026 change to article 155 IV-2-3° CGI — the qualification test for LMP status — therefore directly determines who pays CGT under which regime when they sell.
One of the most significant 2026 developments for British landlords running long-term furnished rentals concerns the definition of loueurs en meublé professionnels (LMP) for non-residents. The status matters enormously: an LMP can deduct rental losses against their global income without limit, and capital gains on the sale of the rental property fall under the BIC professional regime — which has its own abattement structure (favourable after five years and seven years for partial then total exemption, under articles 151 septies and 151 septies B CGI).
Under article 155 IV-2-3° CGI, the LMP status requires two conditions to be met simultaneously: first, that annual receipts from the furnished rental activity exceed €23,000 across the foyer fiscal; second, that those receipts exceed the foyer fiscal’s other professional income subject to French income tax.
For non-residents, the second condition created a structural anomaly. The administration’s doctrine assessed “other professional income of the foyer fiscal” by reference to the income taxable in France only, applying French law and the relevant double-tax convention. A British landlord with substantial UK employment income — which is taxed in the UK under the UK-France treaty and not in France — would have €0 of “other professional income” assessed for LMP purposes. On a literal reading, the rental receipts always exceeded €0, and the LMP status should have been met. But in practice the administration applied the rule restrictively, often treating the absence of French-taxable other income as a disqualification rather than a qualification, and the result was a near-systematic exclusion of non-residents from LMP status.
Article 53 of the loi de finances pour 2026 corrects this anomaly. For non-resident taxpayers, the predominance test is now expressly assessed by reference to the foyer fiscal’s professional income of the same nature as those mentioned in article 155 IV-2-3° CGI and which are subject, in the State of residence, to a tax equivalent to French income tax. In plain English: a UK resident’s UK employment income, self-employment income, or pension income — being subject to UK income tax which is equivalent to French impôt sur le revenu — is now counted in the predominance test. The change applies to the imposition of 2026 income and onwards.
This is a meaningful change for two categories of British landlords: (i) those running short-let or long-let furnished operations whose French rental receipts exceed €23,000 and who would historically have qualified as LMP automatically because they had no other French-taxable income, and (ii) those who would have wanted to qualify as LMP under the new rules even though their UK employment income is far higher than their French rental receipts. Under the old (restrictive) reading, the first group was wrongly excluded; under the new rules, group (i) probably loses LMP status (because their UK income now counts and exceeds the rental receipts), but the legal position is now clear and defensible. Group (ii) faces no change. The net effect is that British landlords with very large French furnished-rental operations relative to their UK income may now realistically qualify, where the doctrine had previously made it almost impossible. For the wider Airbnb / short-let regulatory picture, our guide to short-let regulation in France sets out the surrounding framework.
If LMP status applies, the plus-value at the sale of the rental property falls outside the private regime and into the professional regime. Under article 151 septies B CGI, a 10% per year abattement applies from year 6 of ownership, leading to full exemption from income tax (but not from social charges) at year 15. Under article 151 septies CGI, where the rental receipts of the LMP activity remain below €90,000 across the two preceding tax years, the gain can be fully exempt — both income tax and social charges. The mechanics are complex and the LMP regime has its own anti-avoidance rules; a British landlord considering whether to switch into LMP status should take specific advice before relying on it.
The UK side: how French CGT interacts with UK tax
French tax is only one half of the British seller’s bill. The same gain is also potentially taxable in the UK, because UK residents are taxed on their worldwide capital gains under the residence principle of UK CGT.
The UK-France double-tax convention preserves France’s primary taxing right over the gain (real property is taxed in the situs state), and the UK provides credit for the French tax paid against any UK CGT due on the same gain. In practice this means: if your French CGT bill (after abattements) is higher than your UK CGT bill on the same gain, the credit absorbs the entire UK liability and you pay zero UK CGT. If your French CGT bill is lower (typically because you’ve held the property long enough to wipe out the income-tax layer), the UK CGT will exceed the credit and you’ll pay the difference to HMRC. The two systems’ bases diverge — UK CGT uses different rules for cost adjustments and a different rate (typically 24% on residential property for higher-rate taxpayers) — so working out which regime is more painful in any specific case requires running both calculations.
The mechanics of claiming the foreign tax credit on a UK self-assessment return are unforgiving: the relief is only available against the tax on the same income, in the same year, and only up to the lower of the foreign tax paid and the equivalent UK tax. If the French sale closes in March 2026 and the French tax is paid in May 2026, that’s UK tax year 2025-26 for both ends. Get the timing wrong and you can find yourself paying tax twice and reclaiming through painful manual procedures.
What this means for British landlords in practice
Run the abattement clock backwards before pricing. The single highest-value lever you have is the holding period. A property bought in 2002 sold in 2026 — 24 years held — is fully exempt from income tax and pays only a heavily-reduced social-charges layer. The same property bought in 2010 and sold in 2026 — 16 years held — pays both layers with only partial reductions. Twelve months of additional holding can cut your tax bill by tens of thousands of euros depending on which side of a year boundary your sale falls.
Budget the représentant fiscal cost into the sale. For any sale above €150,000, factor in 0.4-1% of the sale price as an additional friction cost. Negotiate with the provider — they typically have published rate cards but discounts are available for high-value sales.
If you might qualify as LMP under the new 2026 rules, take advice before the sale. The professional regime can be more favourable than the private regime in specific circumstances — the 151 septies B abattement gives full income-tax exemption at year 15 rather than year 22 — but it also recaptures the depreciation taken over the holding period and applies a different social-charges treatment, so the comparison is not always one-way. The 2026 change to article 155 IV-2-3° CGI may have moved the qualification threshold for some non-resident landlords. Don’t assume your previous LMP status (or absence of it) carries through unchanged into 2026; get a French accountant to run both regimes side-by-side before the sale.
Consider whether to sell SCI shares instead of the underlying property. If you hold the property through an SCI, selling SCI shares is governed by article 150 UA / 150 UB CGI rather than the real-property regime, and triggers a different droit d’enregistrement (5% of the share price under article 726 CGI rather than the 5.8% notary-borne droit on a property sale). The plus-value calculation is similar but the procedural and timing rules are different. This is a real planning option for the right circumstances.
Coordinate the French and UK tax filings carefully. The French CGT is settled at the closing notaire’s office at the moment of sale (the notaire withholds the tax from the sale proceeds and remits it). The UK return is due the following 31 January (or 5 April for non-resident CGT in certain cases). The 60-day non-resident CGT reporting deadline to HMRC starts on completion. Get your accountants on both sides talking to each other before the sale closes.
Frequently asked questions
What is the headline rate of French CGT for non-residents in 2026?
It depends on the seller’s social-security position. For a UK resident affiliated to UK national-insurance and meeting the three conditions of the de Ruyter carve-out, the rate is 26.5% (19% income tax + 7.5% prélèvement de solidarité). For a UK seller not affiliated to UK NI or who falls outside the carve-out, the rate is 36.2% (19% + 17.2% full social charges). Sales producing very large gains attract an additional progressive surtax of 2-6% under article 1609 nonies G CGI on top.
How long do I need to hold a French property to be fully exempt from CGT?
22 years for the income-tax layer; 30 years for the social-charges layer. Between year 22 and year 30, only the social-charges layer applies (17.2% for UK sellers outside the de Ruyter carve-out, 7.5% for those within it) — and even those are heavily reduced over the period.
Do UK residents still pay the full social-charges layer after Brexit?
Often no. UK residents who satisfy three cumulative conditions — affiliation to UK national-insurance, nationality or legal residence in France, the UK, or another EU member state, and no coverage under a mandatory French social-security regime — pay only the 7.5% prélèvement de solidarité (not the 9.2% CSG and 0.5% CRDS). This carves the social-charges layer down to 7.5% from the headline 17.2%. The carve-out flows from the de Ruyter principle (CJEU C-623/13) and was preserved for UK residents through bilateral coordination after Brexit. Documenting UK NI affiliation at the moment of sale (typically via UK form A1) is the practical step.
When do I need a représentant fiscal accrédité?
Whenever you are a non-EU/EEA-resident seller and the sale price exceeds €150,000. The représentant fiscal is mandatory under article 244 bis A CGI; without one, the notaire cannot complete the sale. Their fee is typically 0.4-1% of the sale price.
What did the loi de finances 2026 change for LMP non-residents?
Article 53 of the loi de finances 2026 amended article 155 IV-2-3° CGI to clarify the predominance test for non-resident loueurs en meublé professionnels. Previously, the administration assessed “other professional income” of the foyer fiscal by reference only to French-taxable income, which produced an anomalous result for UK-resident landlords with UK employment income. The 2026 change expressly includes the foyer fiscal’s professional income subject to a tax equivalent to French impôt sur le revenu in the State of residence — i.e., UK income tax counts. Effective for 2026 income and onwards.
Will I also pay UK CGT on the same gain?
Potentially. UK residents are taxed on their worldwide gains. The UK-France double-tax convention gives France the primary taxing right and the UK provides credit for the French tax paid. If the French CGT exceeds the UK CGT on the same gain, the credit absorbs the UK liability. If the French CGT is lower (typically after long holding has wiped out the income-tax layer), UK CGT may apply on the difference. Coordinate both tax filings carefully — the timing and basis differ on each side.
Is there any way to avoid the surtax on large gains?
The surtax under article 1609 nonies G CGI applies only to net taxable gains above €50,000 after abattements. The most direct way to reduce or eliminate it is to lengthen the holding period (longer holding = lower taxable base = lower surtax bracket). Splitting the property into separate sales is sometimes attempted but the anti-avoidance rules in article 1609 nonies G CGI catch most such attempts. The professional LMP regime can also bypass the surtax in eligible cases.
