675,000 deaths per year, 21 billion euros in inheritance tax, allowances frozen since 2012: France is entering the busiest decade of wealth transfers in its history.
The figure flew under the radar. In 2022, France recorded 675,122 deaths, or 115,829 more than in 2014. An increase of 20.7% in 8 years, driven by a structural factor that the pandemic temporarily masked: the 20 million French people born between 1946 and 1964 are gradually reaching the ages where mortality is accelerating. The Court of Auditors anticipates a continued peak in inheritances between 2025 and 2035. The wave has started, and its tax, economic and family consequences remain largely underestimated.
60% of French heritage will change hands
The assets of households over 60 years old today represent nearly 60% of the total assets of French households, driven by residential real estate and life insurance. This stock will gradually enter the inheritance circuit. Revenue from free transfer taxes (cumulative inheritances and donations) has already reached 21.2 billion euros in 2025, compared to 7 billion in 2011. A 3-fold increase in 14 years, even though no increase in the scale has been voted since 2012.
This dynamic is, according to the Court of Auditors itself, “essentially suffered, rather than desired”. Three forces converge: the legislative choices of 2011-2012 (reduction in the allowance per child from €159,325 to €100,000, freezing of indexation on inflation), the surge in household wealth over the period, and the mechanical increase in the number of annual deaths. The result places France 1st in the OECD for the weight of this tax in relation to GDP (0.74%, compared to 0.18% in Germany and 0.08% in the United States).
The inheritance comes too late
The quantitative study that we published on ADCF.org in April 2026, constructed using data from the Court of Auditors, INSEE and the DGFiP, highlights a gap that is rarely discussed: 60% of heirs are over 60 years old at the time of transmission. The most represented group is that of 60-69 year olds (27.1%), followed by 70-79 year olds (20.1%). Those under 30 represent only 3.4% of heirs.
This mechanical aging reflects the increase in life expectancy (81 years for men, 87 years for women). The heirs themselves are often owners, settled, sometimes retired. The transfer rarely occurs at the age when it would have the most economic utility, whether to finance a first real estate purchase, launch an activity or absorb expenses linked to young children.
Advance donations, the only tool capable of correcting this gap, remain overwhelmingly concentrated among the wealthiest. Donor households have a median gross wealth of €425,000, or 2.4 times the French average. Executives are over-represented there (18.9% of recipients, compared to 11.5% of the population). Donation is not a social corrective, it amplifies patrimonial gaps.
An administrative system already saturated
In addition to the fiscal and demographic dimensions, there is an operational problem. In 2023, only 33.7% of inheritance declarations were registered within the regulatory deadline of 6 months. Notaries, tax services and courts are faced with increasingly complex cases: blended families, joint ownership with 5 or 6 heirs, vacant estates, real estate spread over several departments.
The coming demographic wave will intensify this pressure without resources having been resized. The number of annual deaths will continue to increase mechanically at least until the mid-2030s, as the largest baby boom cohorts (born between 1946 and 1950) reach the age of 85-90.
What the next 10 years will change
Three effects are predictable:
- Budgetary: inheritance tax revenues will continue to grow simply by volume, independently of any legislative developments.
- Politics: pressure for a reform of the system (increase in allowances, reduction in rates, incentives for early donations) will intensify as millions of families are directly affected.
- Assets: households that have not anticipated the transfer (donation-sharing, dismemberment, life insurance) will suffer a tax burden that many will discover too late.
87% of French people want a reduction in inheritance taxes. However, 53% of inheritances are already not taxed, thanks to the reductions in force. This paradox, fueled by the confusion between the upper marginal rate (45%) and the effective average rate, makes public debate particularly difficult to conduct. The next 10 years will make it inevitable.
