French Left Renews Push to Raise Inheritance Taxes, From Forced Philanthropy to a Wealth Transfer Cap

With nearly 9 trillion euros in assets set to change hands in France over the next fifteen years as the baby boomer generation passes on its wealth, the French left is reviving the debate over taxing large inheritances. Several competing proposals are circulating, ranging from technical reform to a far more radical measure, exposing the divisions within the progressive camp on the issue.

Socialist senator Alexandre Ouizille is behind a bill to create a tax on large inheritances (IGS), with a stated goal of roughly 15 billion euros in additional annual revenue. The proposal rests on three pillars: a revised, more progressive inheritance tax schedule, taxation of previously untaxed latent capital gains at the point of transfer, and a modernized framework meant to make lifetime gifts easier. Supporters say the revenue would fund the ecological transition, research, and education, while also allowing taxes on labor to be eased.

A more radical line comes from France Unbowed. Lawmaker Mathilde Panot summed up the party's position bluntly, saying that above 12 million euros in inheritance, everything would be taken. The proposal, which would effectively cap the fortunes that can be passed on tax free, has been branded by critics as forced philanthropy, since it would use the tax code to compel what some large estates had previously chosen to give voluntarily, through foundations, to causes of public interest.

Other figures on the left, including European lawmaker Raphael Glucksmann and Greens national secretary Marine Tondelier, have also come out in favor of tougher inheritance taxation, without fully endorsing the harder line pushed by France Unbowed. The debate, which pits a left divided between technical reform and a sharper break with the right's broad hostility to any increase in inheritance taxation, is shaping up to be one of the major flashpoints of the coming presidential race.

The budget context adds further pressure to the issue. The Cour des Comptes recently estimated that the Dutreil pact, which grants a 75 percent exemption on inheritance tax for family business transfers, cost the public purse more than 5.5 billion euros last year. That has strengthened, in the eyes of the left, the case for a broader overhaul of wealth taxation, as Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu tries to pass a 2026 budget at the head of a fragile minority government.

This account draws on reporting by Franceinfo and the French Senate.