5% Household Contents Allowance: Why It Doesn't Cover Your Jewellery

It is one of the most common — and one of the most costly — confusions in estates that include jewellery. The "5% allowance" does exist, but it does not do what many heirs believe it does.

What the 5% allowance actually says

Article 764, I, 3° of the French General Tax Code provides that, in the absence of a public sale or an inventory, the taxable value of household furnishings may not be less than 5% of all other movable and immovable assets in the estate.

Two clarifications are needed. First, it is a minimum, not a cap or a convenience option: it is a floor applicable when nothing more precise exists. Second, and above all, it applies only to household furnishings.

"Household furnishings": a precise notion

Article 534 of the French Civil Code defines them as furniture intended for the use and ornamentation of apartments: beds, seats, tables, tapestries, mirrors, clocks… In other words, what furnishes a dwelling.

A ring, a necklace, a loose diamond, a collector's watch or a painting do not furnish an apartment in the legal sense. They fall under Article 764, II, which establishes a separate valuation regime for them. The published tax doctrine in the BOFiP confirms this: jewellery, precious stones, works of art and collectibles are excluded from the household contents allowance and must be declared separately.

The practical consequences for heirs

Three mistakes recur regularly:

• Believing that 5% "covers everything" and declaring nothing for jewellery. In the event of an audit, the tax authorities may reassess their value, with late-payment interest.
• Combining jewellery with furnishings in a single household contents line. The return becomes imprecise and vulnerable, even though jewellery is often the most significant movable asset.
• Undervaluing through reverse caution: declaring a very low value "by guesswork". If an insurance policy exists, it sets a floor that makes this undervaluation immediately contestable.

Conversely, a written appraisal as of the date of death secures the return in both directions: it avoids both risky undervaluation and overvaluation, which would make heirs pay unnecessary duties.

Updated on 24 July 2026 — scales and allowances may change with each finance law.