Overseas Chambers of Peter Harris

Overseas Chambers
c/o Addington Chambers
160, Fleet Street,
London EC4A 2DQ,
United Kingdom
https://addingtonchambers.com

Fellow of the European Law Institute Vienna
https://overseaschambers.com/
Barrister at Law - Regulated by
the Bar Standards Board
Bar Mututal insurance: 8015/009

Declaration date for the Trustee declaration of French connected trusts extended from 15th June to 1st July 2019 as an exception

June 28th 2019

Trustees may have been taken by surprise by the change in the loi de finances pour 2019 wrought by article 14 which requires them to declare not only direct ot indirectholdings, in French immovable property, but also movable assets situated in France such as shares traded on a French stock exhange. Thas is only the asset side of the picture.

Trustees of trusts enjoying a French connection through a settlor or constituant and beneficiaries resident in France will also have to declare the assets held in trust for the settlor/constituant and the beneficial class where any one of these is French resident, whether these assets or other individuals are in France or not.

The avowed aim is to safeguard French succession and gift duty upon French situs movable and immovable assets, with declared values. That in itself is aggressive, but not objectionable.

The French administration are on an information gathering exercise as to trusts. There is no immediate tax collection involved saving to the extent of a prélèvement on any immovables undeclared by the French resident taxpayer concerned or by the Trustees where there is no other French connection. What it does is to provide the French amdinstration with a reglularly updated invenytopry of assest for deemed succession and gift duty purposes.

It does howver place Trustees purchasing French shares for investment purposes in a difficult position on their acquisition. There is a technicla duty to declare such acquisitions and their disposals on a 2181 Trust1 event declaration, in additon to the annual 2181 Trust2 declaration. Given the aim is iot consolidate gift and succession duty, that is likely to be enforced at some point, by pênalities of €20.000.

That was the basis of the amendment to article 1649AB CGI in January of this year. see the News page on

However, as the announcement was muffled and deliberately so, few outside Paris were aware of it, and it was only in early June that the declaration itself became avaioable on the French Impôts website.

The declaration date has exceptionally been pushed back to 1st July, 2019 by a notice of 14th June, which is clearly inadequate: see https://www.impots.gouv.fr/portail/international-professionnel/questions/quelle-date-doit-etre-deposee-une-declaration-de-trust.

Please contact Peter today, Friday 28th June, or at the latest by 9.000 on Monday 1st if you wish assistance in avoinding the €20.000 which is both disproportionate and possibly unconstitutional.