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French tax advice · OptiFi

Tax advice in France: wealth planning and tax-efficient investing

French taxation affects how you earn, invest, hold, withdraw and transfer wealth. Good tax planning does not start with a tax product: it starts with understanding your residence, income, assets, professional structures, investment horizon and family situation.

OptiFi helps business owners, families and internationally exposed clients understand these interactions before choosing an investment, structure or tax incentive.

The OptiFi principle

Reducing tax is not a wealth strategy.

The objective is to improve the overall after-tax outcome without sacrificing investment quality, liquidity or risk control.

Understand before optimising

Understand your tax situation before trying to reduce it

Tax planning can involve several connected questions:

  • French tax residence and international exposure;
  • income tax and investment income;
  • professional remuneration and company structures;
  • financial investments and wrappers;
  • property and IFI;
  • retirement planning;
  • gifts, inheritance and estate planning;
  • specific tax-reduction schemes where economically relevant.

The correct order is:

situation → objectives → structure → investment → taxation

Not: tax saving → product.

Main tax and wealth-planning topics

The questions behind the tax treatment

Income and investment taxation

Income tax, financial income, capital gains and the interaction between tax regimes. Investment choices and wrappers should be compared on their overall after-tax outcome.

Explore investment planning

Business owners and professional structures

Remuneration, dividends, holding companies and corporate structures connect business decisions with personal wealth. Available cash, ownership and future needs should be considered together.

Explore corporate cash planning

Retirement planning

PER contributions may reduce taxable income when deductible. This is a tax deduction, not a direct tax reduction: the eventual taxation of withdrawals must also be considered alongside investment horizon and access to savings.

Explore retirement planning

Property and IFI

Property income, ownership structures, financing and French real-estate wealth tax (IFI) need to be read together. A tax advantage cannot replace an assessment of value, rental demand, costs and resale prospects.

Estate planning and inheritance

Gifts, succession, life insurance and beneficiary clauses influence how family wealth is held and transferred. Ownership, protection and transmission objectives should be examined before choosing a structure.

Explore estate planning

International situations

French residents with foreign assets or income, non-residents holding French assets and internationally mobile families face interactions between jurisdictions. Residence and future mobility belong in the planning framework.

Explore Luxembourg life insurance

Incentives, not starting points

French tax-reduction schemes

Tax incentives can improve the economics of an investment, but they should never compensate for an unsuitable asset, excessive acquisition price, disproportionate risk or poor liquidity.

Industrial Girardin

The Girardin Industriel mechanism may provide an income-tax reduction in return for financing qualifying productive investments in French overseas territories, subject to strict conditions and specific risks. Eligibility, the operation’s compliance and the risk of losing the tax benefit need to be examined before committing funds.

Understand the Industrial Girardin scheme

FIP and FCPI funds

The income-tax reductions attached to ordinary FIP and FCPI private-equity funds were abolished in 2025 and 2026. Only specific regimes remain, subject to conditions — qualifying FIP Corsica and overseas funds, and FCPI funds invested in innovative young companies — with real capital-loss risk and long illiquidity.

FIP and FCPI funds in France: what tax benefits remain in 2026?

Malraux law

The Malraux scheme gives French tax residents an income-tax reduction on qualifying restoration expenses for heritage buildings, together with a nine-year letting commitment. The purchase price, works budget, liquidity and resale conditions matter more than the tax figure.

Malraux law in France: tax relief, restoration costs and resale risks

Beyond one jurisdiction

French taxation for internationally exposed clients

French tax questions become more complex when several countries are involved. Tax residence, foreign income, financial accounts, property, life insurance and inheritance may be affected by both French domestic rules and international tax treaties.

The relevant question is therefore not simply “How am I taxed in France?” but how the French rules interact with the rest of the client's financial and family situation.

Related analyses

Read the investment as well as the tax incentive

Your tax situation should be read together with your wealth.

The first conversation is intended to understand your situation and determine whether OptiFi can add value.

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