IFI: the new interest of cantonment

The Finance Act for 2018 replaced the ISF by the IFI (property tax estate) while offering the cantonment of the surviving spouse a new interest.

In fact, henceforth the burden of the IFI weighing on the surviving spouse will depend on the cause of his usufruct:

• The usufruct is an application of the legal rights of the surviving spouse. In this case, the burden of the IFI will exceptionally be divided between the usufructuary spouse and the bare-owners.
• Either the usufruct comes from a will or a donation between spouses. In this case, the spouse will be subject to the IFI on the value of the property’s full ownership. However, the cantonment allows the surviving spouse to limit the exercise of his rights to a certain portion of the estate, or even to certain property only.

In doing so, the surviving spouse waives his usufruct for the benefit of the other heirs (without taxation against them); and he excludes from the base of his IFI the property from which he has given up the usufruct.

A new reflection will therefore have to be conducted, prior to the exercise of cantonment, on the consequences of its effectiveness in IFI.