France-Mauritius Inheritance: How the Six-Years-in-Ten Rule Works

Six years spent in France out of the last ten are never, on their own, enough to make an heir taxable in France on a Mauritian property. That is the most common mistake on this subject.

Article 750 ter 3° of the French General Tax Code sets out two cumulative conditions. The heir must both be tax resident in France on the day of transfer, and have been so for at least six of the ten preceding years. If either is missing, the rule does not apply. This page covers only that mechanism; for the wider picture — Mauritian taxation, civil law, formalities, corporate structures — see our main guide to French inheritance tax on Mauritian property.

What article 750 ter actually says

Article 750 ter defines what France subjects to gift and inheritance duty. It covers three situations, of which only the third concerns us here.

Paragraph 1° concerns a deceased person domiciled in France: their worldwide estate is taxable. Paragraph 2° concerns a deceased person domiciled outside France: only assets located in France are taxable. Both are determined without looking at the heir at all.

Paragraph 3° changes the logic. It covers, in translation from the French, “movable and immovable property situated in France or outside France […] received by the heir […] who has their tax domicile in France within the meaning of article 4 B”. It then adds the decisive restriction: “However, this provision applies only where the heir […] has had their tax domicile in France for at least six years during the ten years preceding the year in which they receive the property.”

Three observations on this wording govern everything that follows.

• The text speaks of the heir, not the estate. It is a personal test, assessed person by person.
• The word “however” introduces a restriction on a rule already stated. The duration condition does not replace the domicile condition: it limits it.
• The ten-year window is counted from the year the property is received, not from the exact date.

In practice, paragraph 3° only comes into play if the deceased was domiciled outside France. If the deceased was domiciled in France, paragraph 1° has already caught everything and the six-year question does not arise.

The two conditions, in the order you must check them

Condition 1 — being tax resident in France on the day of transfer. Domicile is understood within the meaning of article 4 B of the General Tax Code: home or main place of residence in France, main professional activity in France, or centre of economic interests in France. Any one of these criteria is enough. Since law no. 2025-127 of 14 February 2025, article 4 B specifies that a person meeting one of these criteria cannot be regarded as domiciled in France where an international treaty treats them as resident of another State.

Condition 2 — having been tax resident in France for at least six years during the ten years preceding the year of transfer.

Always check condition 1 first. If the heir is not domiciled in France on the day of death, the analysis stops there: there is no need to reconstruct ten years of history.

Do the six years have to be consecutive?

No. The French tax authority states it in its published guidance in the BOFiP: the six-year period within the ten years preceding the chargeable event does not have to be continuous.

An heir who lived four years in France, spent three years abroad, then came back for two years, totals six years. The condition is met, even though no continuous six-year period exists. This is a point many sources get backwards.

How the ten preceding years are counted

The text is precise: “the ten years preceding the year in which they receive the property”. The reference is to the year. The window is therefore counted in calendar years, and the year of transfer itself is not included in the ten.

In concrete terms, for a death occurring in 2026, the window to examine runs from 2016 to 2025 inclusive. Within it you must find at least six years of French tax domicile.

Three timelines to fix the idea

The third case shows how narrow the line can be: a death a year later would have flipped the outcome.

The heir still lives in France at the time of death

Condition 1 is met. Everything then turns on counting the years. If the six years are reached, the share received by that heir — including the value of the Mauritian property — falls within the French tax base, after the standard allowances.

If they are not, paragraph 3° does not apply to them, and the Mauritian property stays outside the French net, even though they live in France. Living in France is not enough on its own.

The heir left France before the death

This is where the rule is most often misunderstood. An heir who lived eight years in France but settled in Mauritius before their father’s death does not meet condition 1 on the day of transfer. Paragraph 3° does not apply to them, however long they previously spent in France. There is no six-year “trail” that follows an heir after they leave.

One serious caveat, however. The exit from French tax residence must be real. A declared move does not make disappear a home that remains in France, a main professional activity in France, or a centre of economic interests in France — each of these alone is enough to establish tax domicile within the meaning of article 4 B. A Mauritian permit, of whatever kind, is a residence document and does not settle the tax question.

What if they move back to France just before the succession?

Returning restores condition 1, but it does not create past years. Condition 2 continues to be read across the window of the ten preceding calendar years.

An heir who returned to France in 2025 after fifteen years abroad, for a death occurring in 2026, is domiciled in France on the day of transfer — but counts only one year within the 2016–2025 window. Paragraph 3° does not apply.

Conversely, an heir who returned to France in 2022 having already lived there from 2016 to 2019 accumulates four older years and four recent ones: the count is comfortably reached. That is the direct consequence of the six years not needing to be consecutive.

Does French nationality play any part?

None. Article 750 ter nowhere mentions nationality: it refers exclusively to tax domicile under article 4 B.

A French national permanently settled in Mauritius, with no home and no economic interests in France, is not tax resident in France and falls outside paragraph 3°. A Mauritian national living in Paris for ten years is domiciled there and falls within it. The passport says nothing about taxation; the factual situation does.

Several heirs: a count for each person

Paragraph 3° is assessed individually. Within a single estate, each heir is tested separately, in the order of the two conditions.

One death, one property, three answers. No rule allows an estate to be taxed as a whole on the ground that one heir lives in France.

A worked example: a villa in Tamarin

A father, tax resident in Mauritius since 2013, dies in 2026. His estate comprises a villa in Tamarin valued at €1,200,000 and Mauritian cash of €300,000 — €1,500,000 in total, shared equally between two children, so €750,000 each. Mauritius levies no inheritance duty.

Scenario A — the child has been domiciled in France since 2014

Condition 1 met. Window 2016–2025: ten years of French domicile, so condition 2 met. Their €750,000 share falls within the French tax base. After the €100,000 direct-line allowance provided by article 779 of the General Tax Code, the taxable base comes to €650,000, to which the progressive scale in article 777 applies.

We do not quantify the duty here: it depends on the scale in force at the date of death, on the estate liabilities allowed as deductions, and on earlier gifts made by the father to that child, which reduce the allowance available. No Mauritian duty is credited, since there is no Mauritian tax to credit — the mechanism in article 784 A remains theoretical in this case.

Scenario B — the child has been settled in Mauritius since 2018

Condition 1 not met on the day of death. Their €750,000 share falls outside paragraph 3°. The deceased being domiciled outside France and the property being situated outside France, neither paragraph 1° nor 2° applies. No French inheritance duty is due on that share, and no Mauritian duty either.

Scenario C — the child arrived in France in 2022

Condition 1 met. Window 2016–2025: four years only (2022 to 2025). Condition 2 not met, two years short. Their share falls outside paragraph 3°. Had the death occurred in 2028, the 2018–2027 window would have counted six years and the answer would have been the opposite: the same heir, the same property, a different outcome depending on the year of death.

These three scenarios read together: on an identical villa, French taxation depends entirely on the residential history of the person receiving it.

Which France–Mauritius treaty applies?

None, in inheritance matters. A France–Mauritius tax treaty does exist — signed on 11 December 1980, supplemented by a 2011 amendment — but the official list of treaties concluded by France, updated to 29 April 2026, limits it to income tax and wealth tax. There is no inheritance treaty and no gift treaty.

Nothing therefore stands in the way of article 750 ter 3° applying. That point, along with the more delicate question of how article 4 B as amended in 2025 interacts with a treaty that does not cover inheritance, is developed in the main guide.

Key points

• The two conditions are cumulative: French tax domicile on the day of transfer and six years out of the ten preceding.
• Always check domicile on the day of death first: if it is missing, the rest is moot.
• The six years do not have to be consecutive.
• The window is counted in calendar years, excluding the year of transfer.
• The count is individual: each heir has their own result.
• Nationality has no effect; only tax domicile counts.

Frequently asked questions

Is the count based on calendar years or twelve-month periods?

The text refers to “the ten years preceding the year in which they receive the property”, which points to calendar years and excludes the year of transfer. A borderline case, where a single year makes the difference, is worth having the count verified.

Does a partial year count?

The text reasons in years of tax domicile. A year of arrival or departure part-way through raises a question of assessment that we do not settle here: it is precisely the kind of point to put to a professional, because it can flip the result.

If the six-year condition is not met, does the heir declare nothing in France?

On the Mauritian property, there is no charge under paragraph 3°. But if the estate also includes assets situated in France, those remain taxable under paragraph 2° and must be declared.

Does the rule apply to gifts as well?

Yes. Article 750 ter covers gratuitous transfers as a whole, and its paragraph 3° expressly designates the donee alongside the heir and the legatee.

What happens if the heir has several residences?

Article 4 B sets out several alternative criteria — home or main residence, main professional activity, centre of economic interests — and any one is enough to establish French domicile. An applicable treaty may then resolve a dual residence, subject to the caveat noted in the main guide.

Official sources used

• French General Tax Code: article 750 ter (territoriality of gift and inheritance duty), article 4 B (tax domicile, version in force at 16 February 2025, as amended by law no. 2025-127 of 14 February 2025), article 779 (allowances), article 777 (rates), article 784 A (credit for duty paid outside France).
• BOFiP: BOI-ENR-DMTG-10-10-30 — territoriality, including the non-continuous nature of the six years.
• BOFiP: BOI-ANNX-000306 — list of tax treaties concluded by France, updated to 29 April 2026.
• France–Mauritius tax treaty of 11 December 1980 and its amendment of 23 June 2011 — consolidated version published by the French public finances directorate.

Information verified: August 2026. Written by Westimmo from the official sources cited. It has not been validated by a legal or tax professional outside Westimmo. Quotations from the French tax code are our own translation; the French text is the only authoritative version.

The information presented is general and does not constitute personalised legal or tax advice. An international succession must be analysed according to tax residence, family circumstances, the nature of the assets and how they are held.