Adjusting legally: Pay what you owe, no more

Paying less tax without hiding anything is possible. The law itself provides the levers.

This is not about tricks. It is about knowing the rules, and using them at the right time.

First lever: losses. A capital loss is not only bad news.

Say you gained two thousand euros on one share. And another holding is down one thousand five hundred euros.

If you only sell the winner, say at thirty per cent, the tax on the gain is six hundred euros.

If you also sell the loser in the same year, the loss is wiped off the gain. Five hundred euros remain taxed.

One hundred and fifty euros of tax instead of six hundred. Four hundred and fifty euros kept.

And a loss bigger than your gains is not lost. In France, it can be used against gains for the next ten years.

Careful though: selling a holding just for tax only makes sense if you already wanted to sell it.

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Second lever: giving during your lifetime. It is called a gift.

In France, each parent can give one hundred thousand euros to each child tax-free. And do it again every fifteen years.

Two parents, two children: four hundred thousand euros passed on tax-free. And the clock restarts fifteen years later.

The amounts move with the law. But the idea stays: passing on early and in several goes costs less than all at once.

Third lever: splitting ownership. You cut ownership into two pieces.

On one side, the usufruct: the right to use the property, or collect its rent. On the other, the bare ownership.

A parent can give the bare ownership to their child, and keep the usufruct. They still live at home.

The tax office only taxes the part given. At sixty-five, its scale sets it at sixty per cent of the value.

For a property worth two hundred and fifty thousand euros, the gift covers one hundred and fifty thousand. Not the whole.

And when the parent dies, the usufruct passes to the child with no new tax. They become full owner.

Fourth lever, the simplest: the calendar.

Tax is counted by year. Selling on the thirty-first of December or the second of January is not the same tax year.

A gain made in January will be taxed a year later. A loss made in December can still wipe out a gain from that year.

Four levers, all written into law. None of them makes you money: they only stop you losing it.

And for a gift or split ownership, you go to a notary. These are decisions you cannot undo.