Category: PPLI by Country

EU Civil Law and Life Insurance: When a Trust Is Not the Answer

In the UK, a trust removes a life insurance policy from the estate and eliminates its Inheritance Tax exposure. In France, Germany, Spain, and Belgium — the four largest continental European UHNWI markets — the trust either does not exist in local law or is explicitly ignored for tax purposes. This piece examines what that means in practice and what tools actually work in each jurisdiction. GLOBAL ESTATE PLANNING SERIESOverview — The Global LandscapePart 2 — EU Civil Law: France, Germany, Spain and Belgium (You are here)Part 3 — The UAE and GCC: Succession Without Estate TaxPart 4 — Japan and Asia: The World’s Highest Inheritance Tax RatePart 5 — The United States: Estate Tax, the ILIT, and Where PPLI

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Life Insurance and Inheritance Tax: The Global Landscape

The UK series on this blog established how a trust structure removes a life insurance policy from an estate and neutralises its inheritance tax exposure. That analysis is country-specific. Across 44 jurisdictions tracked by EY’s Worldwide Estate and Inheritance Tax Guide, the problem — and the solution — looks markedly different. This piece maps the global landscape and introduces the dedicated country series that follows. GLOBAL ESTATE PLANNING SERIESOverview — The Global Landscape (You are here)Part 2 — EU Civil Law: France, Germany, Spain and BelgiumPart 3 — The UAE and GCC: Succession Without Estate TaxPart 4 — Japan and Asia: The World’s Highest Inheritance Tax RatePart 5 — The United States: Estate Tax, the ILIT, and Where PPLI FitsPart

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You’re Not Moving to Greece Yet – But Your Money Might Want To

For non-residents with Greek assets, the tax picture is manageable. For those considering relocation, the opportunity is exceptional — and structuring decisions made now determine the outcome. You own a property in Crete. Or you hold shares in a Greek company your family started twenty years ago. Or you are watching the Golden Visa programme and calculating whether Athens, Thessaloniki, or one of the islands might eventually suit a relocation. You are not a Greek tax resident. Not yet. But you have Greek assets. And those assets create Greek tax exposure that most non-resident owners manage imperfectly — and that PPLI can help address, both now and in the context of any future move. This article is for non-residents with

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Greece Has a €100,000 Tax Cap on Everything Your Portfolio Earns. Here’s What That Means for PPLI

How Article 5A’s non-dom flat tax, combined with PPLI, creates the EU’s most efficient structure for inbound residents — and why Greece now outperforms Italy, Spain, and France for large portfolios. Imagine telling a client: no matter how much your investment portfolio earns this year — whether it is €200,000 or €2 million — your Greek income tax on those gains is the same fixed number. €100,000. Paid once. Done. That is not a hypothetical. It is Article 5A of the Greek Income Tax Code, introduced by Law 4646/2019, and it is currently the most powerful single provision in European tax law for high-net-worth individuals with offshore investment portfolios. When you combine it with Private Placement Life Insurance, the result

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PPLI for Non-Residents with Italian Assets: What It Can and Cannot Do

Advisers sometimes present offshore Private Placement Life Insurance to non-resident clients holding Italian assets as if the wrapper eliminates the Italian tax problem. It does not. Italian-source income and gains are taxable in Italy regardless of whether those assets sit inside a PPLI or outside it. The wrapper addresses the tax position in the client’s country of residence. It does not override Italian source-country taxation. That qualification matters a great deal, and it needs to be stated at the outset. What PPLI can do for non-residents with Italian assets is still significant — but advisers who start with an accurate picture of the limits will build better structures and avoid disappointed clients. The fundamental distinction Italy taxes non-residents only on

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PPLI for Italian Tax Residents: What You Need to Know

Italy is not an obvious PPLI jurisdiction. It has a stamp duty on foreign financial assets, a mandatory foreign-asset declaration regime, and a tax authority that has spent the last decade tightening enforcement on offshore structures. For a standard Italian tax resident, the case for offshore Private Placement Life Insurance is real but qualified.  For a new Italian tax resident who has elected the flat tax regime under Article 24-bis of the Italian Tax Consolidated Act, the case is fundamentally different. Italy’s New Tax Resident regime — doubled from EUR 100,000 to EUR 200,000 per year by Law 143 of October 2024 — makes Italy one of the most structurally efficient jurisdictions in Europe for large PPLI portfolios. Understanding the difference between these two

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You Don’t Live in France. But France Still Taxes You.

What non-residents need to know about French tax on property, bank accounts, and cryptocurrency — and how offshore PPLI addresses each one. The assumption many internationally mobile clients make is a reasonable one: if I don’t live in France, France can’t tax me. For the most part, that is correct. But “for the most part” is doing a lot of work in that sentence. France has a long reach when it comes to assets with a French connection, and the gaps in that assumption — inheritance tax on French property, withholding tax on French income, wealth tax on French real estate above the threshold — can be expensive for clients who have not planned around them. France imposes succession tax

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France Taxes Your Portfolio Every Year. Offshore PPLI Doesn’t.

How French residents are using offshore Private Placement Life Insurance to eliminate the annual 30% tax drag, plan their estates, and protect crypto wealth — legally and transparently. If you live in France and hold a meaningful investment portfolio, the French tax system has a simple answer to every decision you make: 30%. Sell shares — 30%. Receive dividends — 30%. Swap one cryptocurrency for another — 30%. Every year, without exception, the prélèvement forfaitaire unique takes its share of everything your money earns. Add 17.2% social charges to that picture, and the cost of holding wealth in France directly is not incidental — it is structural. For a €3 million portfolio generating 5% a year, the annual PFU alone

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Your Client Does Not Live in Spain. But the Taxman Says Their Assets Do.

For non-residents who own property, investments, or other assets in Spain. Your client does not live in Spain, but maybe they lived there in the past, visit regularly, or own a property on the coast that they bought as an investment or a holiday home. They may have a brokerage account holding Spanish equities, or a Spanish-situs bond portfolio. Perhaps they moved on — to London, to Dubai, to Geneva — and Spain is somewhere in the background of their financial life rather than its centre. But Spain has not moved on from them and their assets. Spanish-situs assets — property, shares in Spanish companies, certain financial instruments with a Spanish connection — attract Spanish tax on capital gains, Spanish

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Spain Taxes Your Portfolio at 30%. The Beckham Window Doesn’t Last Forever.

For wealth advisers with Spanish-resident clients — and those with clients planning to relocate. Your client moved to Spain, or has lived there for years. They have built a portfolio – equities, funds, some cryptocurrency, perhaps a bond ladder. And every year, without fail, the Spanish tax authority takes its share. Dividends received: taxed. Capital gain on a fund switch: taxed. One cryptocurrency swapped for another: taxed. Each event is a separate charge, a separate calculation, a reduction in the capital that is supposed to be compounding. From 2026, Spain introduced a new 30% rate on savings income above EUR 300,000 per year. That is the headline number. But even before reaching EUR 300,000, the standard rates are 19%, 21%,

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