{"id":5639,"date":"2026-10-15T09:00:20","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T07:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/balmontconseil.com\/blog\/le-pays-relais-deux-ans-pour-arriver-debarrasse-de-lexit-tax\/"},"modified":"2026-10-15T09:00:20","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T07:00:20","slug":"le-pays-relais-deux-ans-pour-arriver-debarrasse-de-lexit-tax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/balmontconseil.com\/en\/blog\/le-pays-relais-deux-ans-pour-arriver-debarrasse-de-lexit-tax\/","title":{"rendered":"The transit country: two years to arrive free of the exit tax"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"bluf-box\">\n<h2>In summary\u2026<\/h2>\n<p>When the final destination is a non-registration country and the departure date is inconvenient, an interim stay in a registrar&#039;s country allows for the termination of French residency before the final departure. This is not a gimmick: it&#039;s a practical solution.<\/p>\n<p>This depends on one non-negotiable condition: <b>the intermediate installation must be real<\/b>. Housing, work, family, accounts, social life. A facade residence does not weaken the case: it turns it around, and makes it fall under article L. 64 of the Book of Tax Procedures.<\/p>\n<p>The rest is mechanical: deferral of exit tax payment, the deadline after which the tax is waived, and the annual follow-up declaration. It&#039;s this declaration that resolves most cases.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u00abFor those who sell the term, &quot;relay country&quot; refers to an address rented for twelve months in Europe before moving to the actual destination. That&#039;s not what this is about. A two-stage departure involves first establishing a permanent residence in a partner country, then a second move once the French location is stable. The difference isn&#039;t one of degree, it&#039;s one of kind.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>1. What the relay regulates, and what it requires<\/strong><\/h2>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>He doesn&#039;t reduce taxes: he puts things back in the right order.<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Going directly to a non-reform country presents three difficulties: residency issues that arise without arbitration, exit tax deferrals that are no longer automatic, and the need to prove a break in the agreement without any legal basis for resolution. Using a temporary arrangement doesn&#039;t eliminate these difficulties; it simply separates them in time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Specifically.<\/strong> You don&#039;t earn a rate, you earn a <b>arbitrator<\/b> and one <b>calendar<\/b>. The arbiter is the convention of the first country, which decides your residence if both France and that country claim you. And the second departure no longer originates from France: it originates elsewhere.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, the first installation must actually be one. French law does not require an intention, it looks at a life: article 4 B of the CGI retains three criteria \u2014 home or main residence, professional activity, center of economic interests \u2014 each of which is sufficient on its own to link a person to France.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Accommodation<\/strong> \u2014 Lease or acquisition in the taxpayer&#039;s name, occupied, consistent consumption.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Family<\/strong> \u2014 Spouse and children living locally, local schooling. The least circumventable criterion.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Activity<\/strong> \u2014 Functions actually carried out on site, not a French mandate held at a distance.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Flow<\/strong> \u2014 Local accounts used for current expenses, local social affiliation.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Traceability<\/strong> \u2014 Dated documentation, preserved over time \u2014 not reconstructed after the fact.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Specifically.<\/strong> The question your application must answer can be summed up in one line: <b>Where did you sleep, and where was your family?<\/b> An apartment rented but empty, a spouse remaining in France, children attending school in Lyon: no agreement can save this case. We refuse to put it together.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>For the technician.<\/strong> Article 4 B, 1\u00b0 of the French General Tax Code (CGI): alternative criteria. Since the 2020 Finance Act, company directors whose registered office is in France and whose turnover exceeds \u20ac250 million are deemed to carry out their principal business activity there. The center of economic interests survives a relocation when the productive assets remain in France; the relay country agreement only overrides Article 4 B after its tie-breaking criteria have been met.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>2. The exact point at which it switches<\/strong><\/h2>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Abuse of rights: the line is not blurred, it is factual.<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A two-stage departure is not an abuse of rights: choosing the timing, the order of operations, and the country of establishment falls under the freedom of management. What becomes problematic is an establishment whose actions are fictitious, or whose sole purpose is tax avoidance. The operation is no longer debated on its merits but on its sincerity\u2014a debate lost if the facts do not support it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>For the technician.<\/strong> Article L. 64 of the French Tax Procedures Code (LPF): fictitious acts, or those seeking a literal application of the law contrary to the objectives of its authors, with no other motive than to evade or reduce tax liabilities. A surcharge of 80 % under paragraph b of Article 1729 of the French General Tax Code (CGI) is reduced to 40 % if the taxpayer is neither the initiator nor the principal beneficiary.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Article L. 64 A of the French Tax Procedures Code: same construction, same reason <i>mostly<\/i> tax, for acts carried out since January 1, 2020; the automatic surcharge of 1729 b does not apply.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>3. The exit tax: what the relay changes<\/strong><\/h2>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Automatic deferment on one side, guarantees on the other<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Article 167 bis of the French General Tax Code (CGI) taxes the unrealized capital gains of a French tax resident for six of the ten years preceding the transfer of their tax residence, when their securities exceed \u20ac800,000 or represent at least 50% of a company&#039;s profits. This is the factor driving most two-stage departures.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The payment deferral is <b>automatic<\/b> to a Member State of the European Union, to the European Economic Area covered by the text, and to other States bound to France by an administrative assistance agreement <i>and<\/i> A mutual assistance agreement for tax recovery, excluding non-cooperative territories. Elsewhere, it requires an explicit request, a tax representative in France, and guarantees established before departure.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The deferral is not an end in itself: the tax on unrealized capital gains is reduced if the securities are still held after a period of <b>two years<\/b>, brought to <b>five years<\/b> if their value exceeds \u20ac2,570,000 on the date of the transfer. These time limits apply to departures since January 1, 2019; it was fifteen years for those from 2014 to 2018.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>4. The statement that everyone forgets<\/strong><\/h2>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>It&#039;s the case that brings down the files, not the substance.<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The deferral is not a guaranteed status. The capital gains are declared the year following the transfer; then, <b>each year as long as the suspended sentence runs<\/b>, A follow-up statement details the deferred tax and events affecting the securities. One page, once a year. Yet this is where the files falter\u2014not in terms of substance, which is meticulously prepared initially, but in the third-year declaration.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>For the technician.<\/strong> Article 167 bis, IX of the French General Tax Code (CGI): a declaration must be filed the year following the transfer, then an annual follow-up declaration for as long as the deferral period remains in effect. Failure to file results in the immediate payment of the tax, subject to the formal notice provided for in Article 91 quaterdecies of Appendix II to the CGI and the thirty-day period that follows it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The stay of proceedings suspends the statute of limitations for recovery actions until the event that terminates it. A decision of the Council of State dated December 15, 2025, ruled that the failure to file a tax return does not, in itself, reinstate the tax liability, in the absence of a formal notice: the taxpayer does not benefit from the omission.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Three questions. If you hesitate on even one, the application is not ready.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If the tax authorities asked you, four years from now, where you slept each night of your first year in the country, would you be able to provide the documentation? Does your family live where you declare your residence? And did you file your tax return this year to monitor your deferred tax liability?<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Our position<\/strong><\/h2>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What we agree to mount, and what we refuse<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A two-stage departure is legitimate when it reflects a genuine trajectory: a job relocation, a family settling in. It then produces real effects\u2014an automatic extension instead of a five-year security deposit, residency determined by law, not by a power struggle. It doesn&#039;t work any other way: a settlement that lasts only as long as a deadline isn&#039;t a settlement, it&#039;s incriminating evidence. When we&#039;re asked to review such a departure, our first task is often to say that it&#039;s better to regularize than to consolidate.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>Are you preparing to travel to a non-contract country, or have you already left in two stages?<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The initial interview aims to establish three things: whether your French status has been revoked, whether your deferment is up to date, and whether a second departure is possible without jeopardizing the first. Forty-five minutes, with no obligation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>Are you a notary, chartered accountant, broker or fellow consultant?<\/b> These cases rarely get lost due to technical issues, but often due to follow-up. We work in partnership, including annual declarations and documentation. The client remains yours.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Book an appointment<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The initial consultation is to establish your exact situation and determine if there is anything that can be done\u2014sometimes there is nothing, and we will say so as well. Thirty minutes, with no obligation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/calendly.com\/asagnier-balmontconseil\/echange?utm_source=wordpress&#038;utm_medium=social&#038;utm_campaign=post-cmsq3w7zg000hr9knoej5vgrq\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Book an exchange with Balmont Conseil<\/strong><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>En r\u00e9sum\u00e9&#8230; Quand la destination finale est un pays non conventionn\u00e9 et que le d\u00e9part tombe mal, une installation interm\u00e9diaire dans un \u00c9tat conventionn\u00e9 permet d&rsquo;organiser la rupture de r\u00e9sidence fran\u00e7aise avant<span class=\"excerpt-hellip\"> [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":5638,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-patrimoine"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/balmontconseil.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/le-pays-relais-deux-ans-pour-arriver-d-barrass-de-l-exit-tax.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/balmontconseil.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/balmontconseil.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/balmontconseil.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balmontconseil.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balmontconseil.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/balmontconseil.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balmontconseil.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/balmontconseil.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balmontconseil.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balmontconseil.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}