Getting married or PACS'd in France: which, why, and how
Plenty of British couples move to France having never felt the need to marry — and then discover that French law treats an unmarried partner as a total stranger, with no inheritance rights and a 60% tax bill to match. Formalising your relationship, by marriage or by the lighter-touch PACS, fixes that and more. Here's what each one actually does, why so many couples here take the step, and how to navigate the paperwork.
The short version
- Unmarried partners are strangers in law — no automatic inheritance, and 60% tax on what you leave them. This is the problem both marriage and a PACS solve.
- Both marriage and a PACS mean 0% inheritance tax between you, and taxation as one household.
- The key difference: marriage gives automatic inheritance rights; a PACS gives the tax break but you still need a will to inherit.
- A PACS is light-touch — register at the mairie, no ceremony, and dissolve later by simple declaration.
- Marriage is more involved — a fuller dossier, published banns, a civil ceremony; start months ahead.
- Translations are the bottleneck — birth certificates sworn-translated and apostilledAn official certificate (£45 from the UK's FCDO) that authenticates a British document so France will accept it as genuine.. Commission early.
Here's a scenario that plays out sadly often. A British couple, together thirty years, never bothered to marry — why would they? They buy a French home together, and one of them dies. The survivor discovers that in French law they have no automatic right to inherit their partner's share, and that on anything left to them by will, the tax is sixty percent. The house may have to be sold to pay it. None of this is anyone's fault; it's simply that French law and British assumptions collide. The good news is that it's entirely preventable, cheaply, and the choice of how comes down to a genuinely useful question: do you want the full commitment of marriage, or the pragmatic protection of a PACS?
Why couples here formalise things
It's rarely about romance and almost always about protection. Three reasons drive it. Open each.
Why couples do itThe inheritance reason (the big one)
This is why so many British couples in France formalise things. An unmarried partner is a legal stranger for inheritance: no automatic rights, and a brutal 60% tax on anything left to them. Both marriage and a PACS remove the tax entirely (0%). The difference between them: marriage also gives automatic inheritance rights, while a PACS gives the tax exemption but you still need a will for your partner to inherit at all. For a couple with a French house, this alone is often reason enough.
Household & everydayThe tax & admin reason
Married couples and PACS partners are taxed as a single household (foyer fiscal), which can lower your combined income tax, and both statuses smooth countless everyday things — next-of-kin rights, joint dealings, social cover. A PACS delivers most of these practical benefits with far less ceremony than marriage.
Can support a visaThe residency reason
A relationship with a French or settled partner can support certain residency routes — the vie privée et familiale card, for instance. Marriage carries more weight here than a PACS, but a long-standing PACS can also help evidence a genuine, settled life together. If residency is part of your motivation, it's worth taking advice on which status best supports your specific case.
The gap people don't spot
A PACS gives the tax break — but not the inheritance without a will
This is the subtlety that catches people out. A PACS makes your partner exempt from inheritance tax — the same 0% as a spouse. But, unlike marriage, a PACS does not automatically give your partner the right to inherit; without a will leaving them something, the tax exemption applies to nothing, because they inherit nothing. So the PACS and the will are a pair: the PACS removes the 60% wall, and the will actually passes the property through it. Do one without the other and you've only done half the job — a mistake that's heartbreakingly common and completely avoidable.
Formalising things? Sort the will at the same time
A PACS gives the tax break but not automatic inheritance — so a will is the missing piece. Since French succession law is unforgiving to the unprepared, doing the status and the will together, with proper advice, is the sensible move.
Explore wills & succession planning →Pimpernel may earn a small commission if you use this — it never changes what we recommend, and there's nothing to sell you.
How to actually do it
Both are done at the mairie, but the effort involved is very different. Open each.
Simple & reversibleHow a PACS works — the light-touch option
A PACS (pacte civil de solidarité) is a civil partnership open to any two adults. You register it at the mairie of your joint residence (or with a notaire), submitting a joint declaration, a convention setting out your arrangement, birth certificates (translated, sometimes with an apostille) and proof of address and identity. There's no ceremony required — it can be a signature across a desk — and dissolving it later is a simple declaration, not a divorce. It's the pragmatic choice for couples who want the protections without the wedding.
Start earlyHow marriage works — more process, more rights
Marrying in France is more involved, especially as a foreigner. You marry at the mairie of a commune where one of you has lived for a qualifying period, and you assemble a substantial dossier: birth certificates (recent, translated, often apostilled), proof of address, certificat de célibat (proof you're free to marry), witnesses, and sometimes a certificat de coutume from your home authority. The banns are published, and the civil ceremony at the mairie is the legally binding part — any church or celebration follows it. Start the paperwork months ahead.
Sworn translationsDocuments & translations — the usual bottleneck
As with most French admin, the hold-up is documents: birth (and any divorce or death) certificates, freshly issued, translated by a sworn translator and often carrying an apostille. A certificat de coutume and certificat de célibat may be needed for marriage to confirm you're legally free to wed under UK law. Sworn translators and apostilles take time — commission them early, exactly as you would for a visa or a carte VitaleThe green card that makes French health reimbursements automatic at the doctor or pharmacy..
Not sure whether to marry, PACS, or just get a will?
The right answer depends on your assets, your family, and whether residency is in play. Pimpernel can talk you through what each status actually changes for your situation, and connect you with a notaire to get the paperwork — and the will — right.
So — which should you choose?
There's no universal answer, but a useful rule of thumb. If you want the fullest legal protection with automatic inheritance rights, the social and (for some) personal meaning of marriage, and the strongest hand for residency, marry. If you want the tax exemption, the household benefits and the everyday simplicity without the ceremony or the harder-to-undo commitment, a PACS delivers most of it with a fraction of the fuss — provided you pair it with a will. And if you're truly not ready for either, at the very least understand that doing nothing leaves your partner exposed to that 60% wall, and take advice on a will and assurance vie as a stopgap. Whatever you choose, choosing deliberately — rather than drifting — is the kindest thing you can do for the person you'd leave behind.
One decision that quietly protects everything else
Marriage, a PACS, a will — the pieces that decide what happens to each other and your home. Pimpernel Pro keeps them on your radar with the guides and prompts to get them sorted while it's simple, and folds the document-gathering into your wider plan.
- Document & deadline prompts
- The residency & tax wizards
- Notaire & adviser referrals
- Every Library guide, in depth
The inheritance side, in full
Why a will matters so much here, the forced-heirship rules, and the assurance-vie workaround — our succession guide covers the ground this decision protects you against.
Read: French wills & succession →Could it help your residency?
A relationship can support certain residence routes. Our residency guide covers the carte de séjourYour French residence permit. categories, including vie privée et familiale.
Read: Applying for your carte de séjour →Straight from the source
The official requirements for a PACS and for marriage — documents, where to file, and the legal effects — are set out on service-public.fr.
The rights, tax treatment and processes here are current for 2026 and drawn from official and specialist sources, but they depend on your nationality, residence and circumstances, and marriage/PACS procedures vary by mairie. Pimpernel are not lawyers or notaires. Confirm the current requirements with your mairie and take advice on the inheritance and residency implications for your situation before acting. This guide is general information.