Life insurance: what each beneficiary receives on death

Sources and assumptions

• bofip.impots.gouv.fr — BOI-TCAS-AUT-60 — tax year 2026, verified on September 17, 2026

  Excerpt from the source : « L'assiette du prélèvement (II-A § 180 et suivants) est diminuée d'un abattement global de 152 500 € par bénéficiaire (CGI, art. 990 I). »

• bofip.impots.gouv.fr — BOI-TCAS-AUT-60 — tax year 2026, verified on September 17, 2026

  Excerpt from the source : « Le taux du prélèvement est fixé à 20 % pour la fraction de la part taxable de chaque bénéficiaire inférieure ou égale à 700 000 €, et à 31,25 % pour la fraction de la part taxable de chaque bénéficiaire excédant cette limite. »

• bofip.impots.gouv.fr — BOI-TCAS-AUT-60 — tax year 2026, verified on September 17, 2026

  Excerpt from the source : « Le taux du prélèvement est fixé à 20 % pour la fraction de la part taxable de chaque bénéficiaire inférieure ou égale à 700 000 €, et à 31,25 % pour la fraction de la part taxable de chaque bénéficiaire excédant cette limite. »

• bofip.impots.gouv.fr — BOI-TCAS-AUT-60 — tax year 2026, verified on September 17, 2026

  Excerpt from the source : « Le taux du prélèvement est fixé à 20 % pour la fraction de la part taxable de chaque bénéficiaire inférieure ou égale à 700 000 €, et à 31,25 % pour la fraction de la part taxable de chaque bénéficiaire excédant cette limite. »

• bofip.impots.gouv.fr — BOI-ENR-DMTG-10-10-20-20 — tax year 2026, verified on September 17, 2026

  Excerpt from the source : « Par exception, l'article 757 B du CGI prévoit qu'au-delà d'un seuil de 30 500 € en capital, les sommes, rentes ou valeurs quelconques dues directement ou indirectement par un assureur à raison du décès de l'assuré donnent ouverture, sous certaines conditions, aux droits de mutation à titre gratuit suivant le degré de parenté existant entre le bénéficiaire et l'assuré. »

• bofip.impots.gouv.fr — BOI-ENR-DMTG-10-10-20-20 — tax year 2026, verified on September 17, 2026

  Excerpt from the source : « Autrement dit, toutes les primes versées (sans déduction des frais de gestion) après le soixante-dixième anniversaire de l'assuré entrent dans le champ d’application des droits de mutation par décès dès lors que le contrat a été souscrit à compter du 20 novembre 1991. »

Calculation assumptions

• This calculator only covers a policy paid out ON DEATH to a named beneficiary. Surrender during the policyholder's lifetime — taxable gains, annual allowance, flat rates and social levies — belongs to the "Life insurance surrender taxation" calculator, which holds those rules and constants.
• The calculation assumes a policy taken out, or substantially amended, on or after 20 November 1991. The dates do not work the same way for the two regimes. Inheritance tax (article 757 B): all premiums paid after the insured's seventieth birthday fall within it as long as the policy was taken out on or after 20 November 1991, whatever the date they were paid. Article 990 I levy: it only covers premiums paid on or after 13 October 1998; on a policy taken out on or after 20 November 1991, premiums paid before the insured turned seventy and before 13 October 1998 are not taxed — leave them out of the capital entered. A policy taken out before 20 November 1991 and not substantially amended since escapes inheritance tax, but the premiums paid into it on or after 13 October 1998 remain subject to the article 990 I levy, after the €152,500 allowance, whatever the insured's age when they were paid: that case is not modelled here.
• The amounts entered are THIS BENEFICIARY'S SHARE, already split between the two regimes: on one side the capital arising from premiums paid before the insured turned seventy, gains included; on the other only the premiums paid after that age, gains excluded. The insurer's statement carries that breakdown — the calculator does not reconstruct it.
• For premiums paid after the age of seventy, the result stops at the inheritance-tax BASE. Kinship allowances and the progressive scale belong to the "Inheritance tax" calculator, which expressly excludes life insurance from its own scope: the two complement each other, they do not overlap.
• Gains attached to premiums paid after the insured's seventieth birthday (interest, profit-sharing) are subject neither to inheritance tax (BOFiP BOI-ENR-DMTG-10-10-20-20, II-A-2-a-1° § 170) nor to the article 990 I levy, which applies neither to those premiums nor to the gains attached to them, for a policy taken out on or after 20 November 1991 (BOFiP BOI-TCAS-AUT-60, I-A-3 § 70). The calculator therefore adds them to the amount paid out without taxing them.
• Not modelled: the extra 20% base allowance of "vie-génération" policies, a beneficiary clause split between usufruct and bare ownership (see the usufruct and bare-ownership valuation calculator), retirement savings plans, a policy "at a loss" whose base is capped at the capital actually paid, the absence of a named beneficiary, policies funded from marital community assets, non-residence for tax purposes, and reversionary annuities.