Inheritance in Andorra : 0 % estate tax,
except for your French heirs.

« There is no inheritance tax in Andorra » : that is true, and it is one of the arguments most often quoted by people considering a move to the Principality. It is also half the story. An estate is not taxed where the assets sit : it is taxed wherever a tax authority has a hook — and in French law that means the residence of the deceased, the location of the assets… and the residence of each heir. That third door is the one almost nobody closes. This guide walks through it, with statutes and figures.

What Andorra does not levy — genuinely nothing

Let us start with the simplest point, because it admits no nuance : the Andorran tax system includes no inheritance tax, no gift tax and no wealth tax. No Andorran statute creates such a levy ; the system rests on personal income tax (IRPF, 0 to 10 %), corporate tax (10 %), IGI at 4.5 % and a distinct property tax framework. Whatever the amount transferred and whatever the family relationship, the Principality claims nothing from your heirs.

The detail people usually miss : that neutrality extends to Andorran real estate. The two taxes that hit property in Andorra — the property transfer tax (ITP) and the property capital gains tax — expressly cover, in their respective article 3, transfers « inter vivos », whether for consideration or gratuitous. A transfer on death falls outside their scope. Inheriting a flat in Escaldes or a chalet in Ordino therefore triggers no Andorran tax at all.

The same logic applies to the levy created by law 3/2024 on foreign real-estate investment (6 % or 10 % depending on the transaction) : its article 4 expressly exempts acquisitions on death of immovable property or rights in rem by a non-resident person. An heir living in Paris or Brussels needs no prior authorisation and pays no Andorran tax — but must file a subsequent declaration with the Foreign Investment Register within three months. A modest formality, but a real one.

The real issue is not where you live, but where your children live

Now for France. The territorial scope of French gift and inheritance tax — successions and lifetime gifts — is set by article 750 ter of the French tax code (CGI). It sets out three cases, and the third one catches people out.

In other words : a couple settled in Andorra for fifteen years, whose wealth sits entirely outside France, will pass it on entirely tax-free to a child who is also expatriated — and will hand France a full-rate bill for the child who stayed in Lyon. Same death, same estate, two unrelated invoices. The decisive variable is not your address : it is theirs.

The second reflex to develop : knowing what counts as an « asset located in France » under the second case. The list is broader than most expect — real estate, tangible movables and businesses operated in France, debts owed by a debtor established in France, securities issued by the French State or by a company with its registered office or effective management in France, and above all shares in companies — including foreign, hence Andorran, ones — whose assets consist mainly of French real estate. Placing a Paris flat inside an Andorran company does not move it out of French scope.

What it costs : two children, two bills

Take an ordinary situation. An Andorran-resident parent dies leaving 2,000,000 € : a flat in Paris (500,000 €), a flat in Barcelona (600,000 €) and a securities account in Andorra (900,000 €). Two children inherit in equal shares, so 1,000,000 € each. Léa lives in Lyon and has never left France. Tom has lived in Andorra for seven years.

That gap is no textbook curiosity : it is the most common situation in Franco-Andorran families, where the parents leave and the children stay — studies, careers, partners. And the same rule applies to lifetime gifts : article 750 ter covers gratuitous transfers, whether inter vivos or on death. Gifting from Andorra to a child still living in France changes nothing in the equation.

Why no tax credit will soften the blow

The natural reflex is to look for the tax treaty. There is none. The France–Andorra treaty of 2 April 2013, in force since 1 July 2015, covers only taxes on income (and, on the French side, wealth tax). It says nothing about inheritance and gift tax — and Andorra is not among the thirty or so States with which France has signed a treaty on gratuitous transfers (Spain, Portugal, Italy, Monaco and the United Kingdom are ; the Principality is not).

That leaves domestic law : article 784 A of the CGI allows inheritance tax paid abroad on assets located abroad to be credited against the French tax. The mechanism exists… but here it has nothing to bite on. Since Andorra levies no inheritance tax, there is nothing to credit. The outcome is paradoxical and worth stating plainly : there is no double taxation, but there is no cushion either. The French heir pays 100 % of the French tax.

Who inherits? Civil law does not follow tax law

A second, independent layer : devolution. Who receives what, and what share is reserved for the children? Since EU Regulation No 650/2012, applicable to deaths from 17 August 2015, the law governing an estate as a whole is in principle that of the deceased’s last habitual residence — even where that is the law of a third State, since the Regulation has universal application. An Andorran resident therefore falls, prima facie, under Andorran law.

Prima facie only. Article 34 of the Regulation provides for renvoi : where the designated law is that of a third State, its own conflict rules are taken into account, and if they refer back to the law of a Member State, that renvoi is accepted. Now, Andorran law 46/2014 on succession on death provides, in its first additional provision, that « the law applicable to the succession as a whole is the personal law of the deceased, determined by nationality, at the time of death ». The practical consequence : for a French national who dies while resident in Andorra, renvoi most often sends the succession back… to French law, forced heirship included. This point should be settled by the notary handling the file — and a will containing an express choice of law (the law of one’s nationality, article 22 of the Regulation) removes the ambiguity in advance.

Where Andorran law does apply — an Andorran national, or a dual national who has chosen it — the contrast with France is stark :

Two useful clarifications. First, where an Andorran deceased leaves no children or descendants, the estate passes to the surviving spouse, the parents keeping only their llegítima ; and a spouse without sufficient means may claim the quarta vidual, capped at one quarter of the net estate (articles 288 onwards). Second, the « compensatory levy » created in France by the law of 24 August 2021 (article 913, third paragraph, of the Civil Code) applies only where the foreign law « allows no forced-heirship mechanism protecting the children » : Andorran law, which has the llegítima, does not fall into that category.

French life insurance follows its own rule

A French life insurance policy does not follow article 750 ter : it falls under article 990 I of the CGI, which has its own territorial test. The levy applies where the beneficiary is French tax-resident at the date of death and has been for at least six of the ten preceding years — or where the policyholder was French tax-resident at death. If neither condition is met, the capital escapes the levy. The scale itself is unchanged : a 152,500 € allowance per beneficiary, then 20 % on the next 700,000 € and 31.25 % above that, for premiums paid before the policyholder turned 70.

For premiums paid after age 70, article 757 B applies : beyond a global allowance of 30,500 €, the premiums (not the gains) fall into the inheritance tax base — and therefore under the territorial rules of article 750 ter, with the familiar six-in-ten-years condition. One and the same policy can thus fall under two different regimes and two different territorial tests. This is exactly the kind of point to be checked policy by policy, before you leave.

What actually works — and what does not

Let us be blunt about the false trails. Interposing an Andorran company does not neutralise the 3° : the heir concerned is taxed on everything received, shares included. And a company — Andorran or otherwise — holding mainly French real estate remains a French asset under the 2°. Relying on a treaty is no more of an option, since none exists. What does work comes down to four levers, all lawful and all a matter of timing :

• Clearing the six-in-ten-years condition. An heir who leaves France stops meeting it after five complete calendar years outside France : from the sixth year, the ten-year reference period contains only five French-resident years. They then become taxable only on the French assets they receive. When a child also expatriates, that timetable becomes a first-order wealth-planning parameter.
• Spreading gifts over time. The 100,000 € allowance per parent per child is renewed every 15 years (the look-back rule of article 784). Starting early remains the most powerful lever — including from Andorra, provided you accept that article 750 ter applies to gifts as well.
• Rebalancing the French pocket. The 2° applies whatever you do : the real question is how much you keep in France, and in what form. Rebalancing between French property and assets held outside France is a pre-departure decision, alongside your exit tax and your unrealised gains.
• Locking down devolution by will. The choice of law under article 22 of Regulation 650/2012 does not reduce the tax — it removes the uncertainty over the applicable law, renvoi and forced heirship. That is legal certainty, not optimisation, and it prevents costly family litigation.

One last point of vigilance, and not a minor one : everything above assumes that your own Andorran tax residence is solid. If the French authorities can establish that your home remained in France (article 4 B of the CGI, then the tie-breakers in article 4 of the 2013 treaty), the first case of article 750 ter applies and your entire worldwide estate becomes taxable in France, whatever your children’s residence. The quality of your tax residence file is the foundation of everything else.

After the death : 12 months, and where to file

On the French side, the inheritance tax return must be filed within six months where the death occurs in mainland France, and within one year in all other cases (article 641 of the CGI) : a death in Andorra therefore opens a twelve-month window. Where the deceased was domiciled outside France, the return — forms 2705 and 2705-S, plus 2705-A for life insurance — is filed with the Recette des non-résidents of the Non-Residents Tax Directorate in Noisy-le-Grand, together with payment.

On the Andorran side there is no inheritance tax return to file, for the simple reason that the tax does not exist. The estate is settled before a notary, on the basis of the will or of the declaration of heirs ; only a non-resident heir receiving Andorran real estate must remember the filing with the Foreign Investment Register within three months.

A Franco-Andorran succession is not won with a trick, but with a map : where the assets are, where the heirs live, for how many years, and what each life insurance policy says. We draw that map and cost the scenarios — immediate gifting, waiting out the six-year test, rebalancing French assets — alongside your notary, who alone can draft the deeds. The Andorran framework is one of Europe’s most favourable for structuring wealth : the point is to ensure France does not take half of it back one generation later.

This guide states the law as at 25 July 2026 for general information only ; it is neither legal advice nor personalised advice. Every cross-border succession should be validated by a notary and, where relevant, a tax lawyer.