A little over six months after a death, the heirs sign preliminary sale agreements (avant-contrats) for two properties in the estate, then obtain a reduction of the declared value, which the Court of Appeal justifies by the prices obtained. Can the price of a sale so close to the death stand in for market value for droits de succession (French inheritance tax)? No, answered the Commercial Chamber of the Cour de cassation (the French supreme court for civil and commercial matters) on 19 June 2024: article 761 of the French General Tax Code (Code général des impôts) takes the value on the date of the transfer, and the Court of Appeal that relied on those prices added to the law a condition it does not contain.
The facts
A man died in 2014; his will appointed five universal legatees (légataires universels). They filed the inheritance tax return on 23 December 2014. On 29 November 2015 they lodged a claim (réclamation, the taxpayer’s formal request for a reduction) with the tax authority to lower the valuation of two properties. The tax authority rejected it on 16 March 2016; the tribunal judiciaire (first-instance civil court), seised by the heirs, upheld their challenge.
The Montpellier Court of Appeal confirmed on 16 September 2022. According to the Cour de cassation’s decision, it noted that “a period of barely more than six months” (translated from the French) had elapsed between the death and the conclusion of two preliminary agreements between the legatees and buyers, and found that the properties had undergone no alteration and that the agreed prices “constitute an objective reference for determining their real market value on the local property market, whose variability could not be contemplated over such a short period in the absence of an exceptional event”.
The tax authority appealed: in its view, transferred assets are valued on the day of the taxable event (fait générateur, the event that gives rise to the tax, here the death), without any reference or circumstance later than that date.
The decision
The Cour de cassation partially quashed the decision (Cass. com., 19 June 2024, appeal no. 22-24.169, unreported), under article 761, first paragraph, of the French General Tax Code, whose terms it recalled: “for the assessment of duties on gratuitous transfers, immovable property, whatever its nature, is valued according to its real market value on the date of the transfer” (translated from the French). It concluded that “the Court of Appeal, which added to the law a condition it does not contain, breached the above provision”.
The quashing concerns only the valuation of the two properties. The case was sent back to the Toulouse Court of Appeal, and the heirs were ordered to pay the costs and €3,000 to the tax authority under article 700 of the French Code of Civil Procedure.
The Court did not adopt the appeal’s broad formula, which excluded any element later than the taxable event. It censured a specific line of reasoning: taking the price of sales concluded after the death as the measure of the value at death, because the interval was short, the property unchanged and the market assumed stable. Those circumstances were not enough: the provision retains a single date, that of the transfer.
What this changes for valuation
The valuation date is the date of death. For an inheritance, the transfer takes place on death, since successions open upon death (article 720 of the French Civil Code): that is the date at which the real market value of the properties is assessed. The Charte de l’expertise en évaluation immobilière (the French property valuation charter, 6th edition, November 2025, Title III, § 1.1) recalls that market value relates to a given date and rests on the state of the market at that date. The report therefore states the death as the valuation date and describes the property as it stood that day: extent, condition, letting situation, planning.
A price obtained later is not the value at death. A preliminary agreement signed six months later is a real transaction, but one concluded at another date and in conditions of its own. In general, those conditions may include, for example, heirs selling to pay the tax or to end the joint ownership (indivision), a property cleared or still furnished, the number of buyers, the negotiation. The market may have moved, even slightly, and an isolated price does not make a market.
The resale as a mere cross-check. The decision does not rule in general terms on the use of a later sale as an indication. The report therefore bases the value on transactions prior to or contemporaneous with the death, and may then test it against the resale: date, conditions, condition of the property, gap explained. In French civil law, under a different provision, the First Civil Chamber held on 2 July 2025 that an asset existing at death and sold afterwards is included, at its value at death, in the pool used to calculate the forced heirship share (réserve, the portion the law reserves for certain heirs) (Reduction of gifts: an asset sold after death is valued at death).
Revising a declared value means proving the value at death. The heirs’ claim was not held inadmissible; what was censured was the reasoning used to reduce the value. Heirs who consider that they declared too high a value establish the market value on the date of death, with comparables from that period that are genuinely similar to the property; in tax matters, the tax authority itself favours the comparison method (Charter, Title II, § 8.14). The similarity requirements imposed on the tax authority’s comparables, in particular the plot size, are the subject of another decision (French tax authority comparables: the plot size must be known); a report prepared for the taxpayer has every reason to meet them too.
Valuing at the time of the return. A valuation made as at the date of death, before any marketing, relies on the references and the condition of the property at that date; it serves for the return and then, where needed, for the discussion with the tax authority. A decision of 8 July 2026 deals with the other side: an undervaluation, even a large one, does not by itself prove a deliberate breach. A written, dated valuation, for its part, documents the care taken over the return (Inheritance: undervaluing is not, in itself, a deliberate breach).
What the valuer takes from it
- For French inheritance tax, properties are valued at their real market value on the date of the transfer, that is, on death (article 761, first paragraph, of the French General Tax Code).
- The price of preliminary agreements signed six months later does not replace that value, even if the property has not changed and the market looks stable.
- As a matter of prudence, a later sale serves as a cross-check: the report bases the value on sales prior to or contemporaneous with the death, then explains the gap with the resale.
- Heirs who wish to revise the declared value prove the value on the day of death, with comparables from that date.
Further reading
The Market value page describes valuation at a past date, in particular for an inheritance, its timescale and its fee. The guide French tax office challenges the value of an inherited house and the glossary entries date de valeur, valeur vénale and comparable complement this article. The 2023 decision on the tax authority’s comparables has its own article: French tax authority comparables: the plot size must be known. On the same theme: Inheritance: undervaluing is not, in itself, a deliberate breach and Disguised gift: French tax reassessment of a family sale. The decision is available on Légifrance.
What next
A property from the estate sold since the death, and the declared value in question?
I establish the market value of the properties on the date of death, with comparable sales from that period, and I analyse the resale that has taken place since without substituting it for that value. The report is designed for the inheritance tax return, a claim or the reply to a tax reassessment notice.
Free quote, by email or by phone. No commitment before the quote is accepted. Fees are never linked to the value of the property (Charte de l’expertise, Title I, §2.1).
