What is France's 17% levy on dormant savings?

A one-off exceptional levy in the draft 2027 budget, charged at 17% on unclaimed assets held by the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations as of 31 December 2026 — dormant bank accounts, forgotten savings books and unclaimed life insurance. It is expected to raise about €1.4 billion from a base of roughly €8.2 billion.

Does the levy affect active Livret A or bank accounts?

No. The levy applies only to assets already transferred to the Caisse des Dépôts because the owner has been inactive for years — typically ten years for a bank account, or three years after a known death. Accounts and savings books in normal use are not touched.

Will owners or heirs lose money because of the levy?

According to the budget text, no. Anyone who later proves their claim receives the full amount plus interest, and the state must first refund the levy it collected so the Caisse des Dépôts can repay the claimant in full. The levy is framed as an advance on money the state would keep anyway after thirty years.

How do I check for forgotten money in France?

Use Ciclade, the free public search service run by the Caisse des Dépôts. You can search under your own name, a deceased relative's name, or a company name. If there is a match, you file a claim and the funds are returned with interest.

How do I keep my family's money out of the unclaimed pool?

Keep one current record of every account, policy, pension and investment, including the institution and what to do with each; name and update beneficiaries; and make sure a trusted person knows the record exists and how to reach it. Assets become unclaimed when the only person who knew about them is gone.

France Wants 17% of Forgotten Savings — What the 2027 Budget Signals for Families

Home / News / France Wants 17% of Forgotten Savings — What the 2027 Budget Signals for Families

France's draft 2027 budget, presented to the cabinet on 1 October 2026, proposes a one-off 17% levy on the roughly €8.2 billion in forgotten savings held by the state custodian, the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (CDC). The government expects the measure to raise about €1.4 billion. It is the latest sign that governments are no longer content to simply store unclaimed money — they are starting to budget with it.

What exactly is France proposing?

The measure sits in the projet de loi de finances for 2027 as a "prélèvement exceptionnel" — an exceptional levy — on avoirs en déshérence, the forgotten assets already transferred to the CDC:

The rate: 17% of the value of unclaimed assets held by the CDC as of 31 December 2026.
The yield: about €1.4 billion, implying a base of roughly €8.2 billion in dormant accounts, savings books and unclaimed life insurance.
The timing: the levy would be due from 1 January 2027 if parliament adopts it unchanged.

Crucially, this is not a tax on active savings. A Livret A you use is untouched. The levy applies only to money whose owners have already gone silent for long enough that their bank or insurer has handed it to the state custodian.

How does money end up at the CDC?

Since the 2014 Eckert law, French banks and insurers must identify inactive accounts and unclaimed life-insurance contracts every year and check whether the holder is still alive. A bank account untouched for ten years — or three years after a known death — is transferred to the CDC. The money then waits there, claimable through the free Ciclade service, for up to thirty years in total. After that, it belongs to the state permanently.

The system works, but slowly. Since 2017, Ciclade has returned about €1.2 billion to owners and heirs, while €640 million has passed to the state. Billions more simply sit.

Do owners lose the 17%?

No — on paper. The budget text states the levy "in no way infringes the rights of holders and their beneficiaries". If a rightful owner or heir comes forward, the state must refund the levy with interest so the CDC can repay the full amount. The government describes the measure as an advance on money it would eventually keep anyway under the thirty-year rule.

The deeper truth is less technical. Every euro in that €8.2 billion pool belongs to someone who lost track of it, or to a family who never knew it existed. The state can only "advance" itself money from people who are not there to object — because the people the money belongs to do not know it is theirs.

A government levy on dormant money is not really a story about tax. It is a story about how much wealth goes unclaimed when nobody leaves a map.

Why are governments moving on unclaimed money now?

France is not alone, and 2026 has made the pattern unmistakable. South Africa's National Treasury is consulting on centralising R88.6 billion in unclaimed assets — with a proposed 45-year claim expiry. Kenya's Unclaimed Financial Assets Authority is enforcing remittance deadlines with penalties. Japan, India, Ghana, Malaysia and the United States each hold enormous dormant balances and are building bigger, more systematic machinery around them.

Public finances are under pressure everywhere, and unclaimed money is the one pool that cannot complain. Expect more levies, more custody transfers, and more expiry rules — not fewer.

What should families take from this?

The French proposal refunds the levy only if someone actually claims. That is the whole lesson in one sentence:

Dormancy is the trigger. Once an account goes quiet long enough, it enters machinery designed around the assumption that nobody is coming.
Heirs lose first. Most unclaimed life insurance in France belongs to beneficiaries who never knew the policy existed. Death, not forgetfulness, is the biggest source of déshérence.
A living record beats a government portal. Ciclade can only find money you think to search for. A maintained record of every account, policy and instruction — shared with a trusted person at the right moment — means your family's money never enters the pool the state is learning to tax.

That is the gap a family vault closes: one private, current map of what you own and owe, released to the people you choose only when it is needed — so a working life of saving never becomes a rounding line in someone else's budget law.

Sources: BFM Business, Capital, MoneyVox, Challenges, TF1 Info.