Double Taxation Relief and Death Tax Credit: All Gift, Inheritance and Estate Tax Treaties
The guide explains how the estate and gift tax conventions, the section 2014 credit and the European credits for US tax relieve an estate taxed by the United States and a European country, and where relief fails.
By Caroline Esche Ashford, PhD, JD · Updated in September 2026
In brief.
- Death taxes overlap because the United States taxes citizens and domiciliaries on their worldwide estates and everyone else on US-situs property, while European countries tax by domicile or residence, by situs and, in Germany and France, by where the heir lives.
- Under the domicile conventions with Germany, France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Denmark and Austria, a tie-breaker fixes a single domicile, the other state may tax only a short list of assets, and the domicile state credits that state’s tax.
- Under those conventions the United States does not tax a non-citizen domiciliary’s US shares, bank deposits or brokerage accounts at all, so for these assets the double tax is prevented rather than credited.
- The older situs conventions, among them those with Italy, Switzerland and Ireland, leave each state’s charging rules in place and relieve through situs rules, exemptions and credits.
- Section 2014 is the fallback where no convention applies and the benchmark where one does; the estate takes whichever credit, statutory or treaty, yields the lower net federal tax (Treas. Reg. § 20.2014-4).
The issue
An estate with property or heirs on both sides of the Atlantic can be taxed twice on the same assets. Relief comes from the estate tax convention where one applies, the US foreign death tax credit of section 2014 and the unilateral credits in the European statutes, and each requires action by the estate. The returns must be sequenced so that the crediting country knows the other country’s tax, that tax must be documented in the form the crediting authority accepts, and the claim must be filed in time. Missing one of these steps leaves both taxes in place, usually permanently.
Who the guide is for
Estate planners, tax advisors, executors and trustees handling the estate of a US citizen or domiciliary with assets or heirs in Europe, or of a European domiciliary with US assets, and advisors reviewing whether a credit claimed on a return was correct. The full analysis, a treaty map of all fifteen treaty partners, comparative tables and a worked example appear only in the guide itself.
The domicile conventions as the rule
For most of the firm’s clients a convention resolves the question before the Code is reached. The guide works through the elements of the domicile conventions: the tie-breaker and the special rules for a citizen who has recently moved, the assets the non-domicile state may still tax, the credit article and its cap, and the saving clause. It explains why the saving clause does not leave a US citizen domiciled abroad without relief. Under the conventions with Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Austria, the United States credits the foreign tax on property other than US-situs property, which section 2014 does not do for local bank deposits or securities of third countries. It also covers the pro rata unified credit and marital provisions of the German and French conventions and the claim periods.
The situs conventions and the statutory fallback
The conventions concluded between 1947 and 1955 do not allocate by domicile. US shares in the estate of a decedent domiciled in Italy, Switzerland or Ireland stay within the US tax base, and relief depends on agreed situs rules, a proportional exemption where the convention provides one, and credits; the Swiss credit is available only if each state regards the decedent as its own citizen or domiciliary. Where no convention exists, as with Belgium, Spain, Luxembourg and Portugal, section 2014 is the only relief on the US side. It is available to the estates of citizens and residents only, reaches only foreign tax on property that US situs rules place in the foreign country, and is capped at whichever is smaller, the foreign tax or the US tax attributable to that property (I.R.C. § 2014(b)).
European credits for US tax and the residual double tax
The guide sets out how Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Italy relieve US tax under their own law (§ 21 ErbStG, Article 784 A of the Code général des impôts, sections 158 and 159 of the Inheritance Tax Act 1984, Article 26 of the Italian succession tax act), each with its own asset definition, cap, proof and deadline. Switzerland grants no federal credit, and the cantons give none for movables. The guide then identifies where double tax survives: the lesser-of limitation, US state death taxes, situs conflicts outside the domicile conventions, foreign gift tax, and timing mismatches, including those created by a qualified domestic trust.
The questions the guide answers
- Which convention applies, and where is the decedent domiciled under it?
- Which assets may the non-domicile state still tax, and which are reserved to the domicile state?
- How does a US citizen domiciled in Germany, France, the United Kingdom or Austria obtain credit for the foreign tax?
- When is the treaty credit more favorable than the section 2014 credit, and how is the choice made?
- What credit will the European country allow for US federal and state death taxes?
- Where does double taxation remain despite the conventions and the credits?
- In what order should the returns be filed, and which proof and deadlines govern each claim?
- Part I. The basis of the double taxation
- Part II. The domicile-based conventions as the rule
- Part III. The situs conventions: Italy, Switzerland and the older partners
- Part IV. The statutory fallback: section 2014 and the election
- Part V. The reverse direction: the European credit for US tax
- Part VI. Gift tax and US state death taxes
- Part VII. Where residual double taxation survives
- Part VIII. Sequencing and documentation: whether relief is actually obtained
- Part IX. Practice points
The firm advises on double taxation relief in planning and administering cross-border estates: treaty domicile, the choice between the treaty and the statutory credit, the order of filings and the proof each authority requires. Its lawyers hold German as well as American law degrees. On French matters the firm advises on the American side and on the France-US treaties, with French notaries, attorneys and tax advisors from its network on the French side; elsewhere it works with the client’s own advisors.
Law and treaty status as of September 2026, as stated in the guide.
This page is general information as of the date stated and is not legal or tax advice. The application of the rules and conventions described depends on the facts of each case.
