Make a donation-sharing
Verified 06 April 2023 - Directorate for Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)
Do you want, in your lifetime, to give and distribute the property of your future estate among your heirs? For this, you can make a donation-share. The beneficiaries then become the owners of your property before your death. Choice of beneficiaries, steps to be taken, cost: here are the rules to know to make a donation-sharing.
Donation-sharing allows you, in your lifetime, to give and share among your heirs presumptive all or part of the assets of your heritage. It is a way to give them in advance the assets of your future estate.
Your beneficiaries immediately and permanently become owners of the donated goods.
To make a donation-sharing, you must meet the following 3 conditions:
- To be sane, that is to say to have mental capacities allowing a discernment and a sufficiently enlightened will
- Be of age or emancipated minor
- Have the legal capacity to dispose of your property.
Please note
there is no age limit for making a donation-sharing.
You can make a donation-share alone. You can also do it with your spouse (so-called donation-sharing) conjunctiva).
A donation-sharing must benefit your heirs presumptive.
Example :
If you are single with children, your heirs are your children.
The rules depend on who you want to donate to.
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Children only
You can decide to make a donation-sharing to your children only.
If you make a donation-sharing with your spouse, it can benefit your common and/or non-common children. In this case, at least one common child and one non-common child must be beneficiaries.
However, each spouse may give only to his or her own children. Non-common children should not receive personal property belonging to their stepfather or stepmother.
Please note
A donation-sharing must be accepted by at least one recipient to be valid and enforceable to other heirs
Children and/or grandchildren
You can donate to your children and/or grandchildren (called transgenerational donation-sharing). To do this, you must meet the following 2 conditions:
- Have the consent of your child who renounces all or part of his rights
- Have the agreement of your beneficiary grandchildren
For example, if you have only one child, you can make a donation-sharing for the benefit of your child and grandchildren, or exclusively for the benefit of your grandchildren.
Another example: you have 2 children X and Y who have several children themselves. You can donate to your child X and to the children of Y (your grandchildren).
Other descendants
In the absence of a child, you can make a donation-sharing for the benefit of collateral. For this to happen, they must be heirs presumptive on the day of the donation-sharing.
FYI
as a leader, you can do the individual business donation-sharing of a for the benefit of your descendants, but also distant relatives or strangers to your family.
Please note
A donation-sharing must be accepted by at least one recipient to be valid and enforceable to other heirs.
You can make a donation-sharing of the present property you own. The donation-sharing can concern all your assets or only part.
You can forward the bare-ownership or theusufruct property in a shared donation.
You can also make a donation-sharing of your rights in a division.
If you make a donation-sharing with your spouse, it may concern your common property and/or the personal property of each.
FYI
if you donated to your child and he or she dies without progeny, you can recover the donated goods. This is called the right of legal return. You can also plan a return clause in the deed of gift: you recover the donated goods if the donee dies before you, with or without descendants.
You must follow the transmission rules imposed by law.
The heirs reserving cannot be excluded from your estate. They must receive a minimum share of inheritance.
You decide to exclude a reserving heir from the gift-sharing or to assign him a lot less than its reserve share. At the time of the opening of the estate, the assets not included in the gift-sharing are not sufficient to compose or supplement its reserve share. The heir can then question your donation-sharing. For that, he must make a reduction action.
FYI
the heir making the reservation may waive in advance the right to contest a donation which would deprive him of his share of the inheritance. It must express this will in a succession pact.
The donation-sharing is done by notarial act.
Who shall I contact
Donation and sharing may be made by separate acts. To do this, you (the donor) must intervene at the 2 acts.
Taxation
You have to pay gift tax, except in the case of exemption.
FYI
the amount of gift tax and the exemption cases are the same as for a simple gift.
If your donation-sharing includes a real estate, you also have to pay land advertising costs.
Notary's fees
You have to pay notary's fee.
The amount of emoluments that you must pay to the notary are proportional to the value in full ownership donated goods.
Value of the property Trim Slices | Cost |
|---|---|
From €0 to €6,500 | 4,837% HT or 5,804% VAT of the value of the property |
From €6,500 to €17,000 | 1.995% HT or 2.394% VAT of the value of the property |
From €17,000 to €60,000 | 1,330% HT or 1,596% VAT of the value of the property |
More than €60,000 | 0.998% excl. VAT or 1.1976% incl. VAT of the value of the property |
In principle, a donation-sharing cannot be canceled. However, there are exceptions.
You can ask for the cancelation of a donation-sharing in court in 3 cases.
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Non-performance of the obligations laid down in the donation
A donation-sharing may oblige the donee to perform certain duties.
Example :
the donee may be required to provide accommodation, food, and health care to donor.
If the donee does not fulfill his obligations, you can request the cancelation of your donation-sharing by subpoena in court.
Who shall I contact
You must request cancelation within 5 years from the day on which the donee ceases to perform his duties.
The judges determine whether the alleged facts are sufficiently serious to allow the donation-sharing to be canceled.
Ingratitude
You can request cancelation for ingratitude if the donee is in any of the following cases:
- He tried to kill you
- He committed crimes offenses, insult or severe abuse against you
- He has refused to provide you with food relief if you are in need, i.e. financial or in kind to allow you to survive.
The facts must have been committed after the donation-sharing.
You must request cancelation by subpoena in court.
Who shall I contact
You must request cancelation within1 a year from the day on which you become aware of the facts.
The judges determine whether the alleged facts are sufficiently serious to allow the donation-sharing to be canceled.
Birth or full adoption of a child
You can request the cancelation of a donation-sharing made when you did not have a child. To do this, you must have provided for it in the deed of donation.
You must request cancelation by subpoena in court within a period of 5 years from birth or adoption by the plenary.
Who shall I contact
Who can help me?
Find who can answer your questions in your region
- Department in charge of taxes (treasury, tax department...)
Telephone administrative information - Allo Public Service
For more information on this topic, you can contact Allô Service Public.
Attention: the service does not have access to users' personal files and cannot therefore provide information on their status.
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The informants who answer you are from the Department of Justice.
- Notary
- Departmental Chamber of Notaries
Persons concerned (Articles 1075 and 1075-1), property including a company (Article 1075-2)
Sharing gifts to heirs.
Donations made to descendants of different degrees
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