Registration fees are only due in the case of a donation of works of art by authentic act.
A donation is a contract by which a donor (the one who gives) disposes, free of charge, immediately and irrevocably, of a movable or immovable property in favour of a donee (the one who receives) who accepts it.
Manual giftsor indirect donations are not subject to any registration duty but may be reintegrated into the estate if the donor dies within 3 years of the indirect donation or manual gift.
Article 7 of the C. succ. (Art. 2.7.1.0.5. § 1 C.F.F.)
Article 7 of the C. succ. (art. 2.7.1.0.5, § 1, C.F.F.) contains a legal fiction: certain property which, on the day of death, is no longer part of the deceased’s patrimony, will be fictitiously reintegrated into it for the collection of the tax. According to this provision, the works and objects of artwhich the administration is able to establish that the deceased disposed of gratuitously in the three years preceding his death, will be considered, for the collection of inheritance tax, as part of his estate(if the donation was not subject to the registration duty established for gifts). The law is mainly aimed at donations of works of art, not subject to registration, made less than three years before the death. These are the donated goods:
- or by manual donation ;
- or by authentic donation received by a foreign notary (Swiss or Dutch for example);
- or by indirect or disguised donation.
