Taking over or handing over a farm in France: steps, tax and aid
In the years ahead, a large share of French farm owners will retire. This generational renewal is a huge challenge for the profession — a tricky turn to negotiate, with potentially incalculable consequences for rural areas, farming sectors and shared economic infrastructure.
Handing over a farm is a unique and important step in the life of the business and of its owner(s). Anticipation and a well-designed strategy are the keys to getting through this major step in the best possible conditions.
Conflicts between the different parties are not uncommon when a farm is handed over. The very nature of the business — family-run in most cases — often makes the operation complex. It is therefore wise to think things through in depth beforehand. Depending on your timeframe for the handover and the structure of your business (sole trader or company), we advise you to think carefully about the future of your farm and your own future, whether personal in the case of retirement or professional in the case of a career change.
Other questions need to be raised: how will your business be valued? What will happen to the land (distinguishing land you own from rented land, which is subject to the rules of the French farm tenancy regime, the statut du fermage)? Who will you hand the business over to? To your family, free of charge? To outside buyers, for a price? Naturally, you will need to analyse the regulatory constraints specific to each type of handover. And to hand over a business that will remain profitable over the long term, you will need to analyse the legal, tax and social-security consequences of the different possible solutions.
Focus on the assets and the type of handover
If the farm is run as a sole trader, the handover will cover assets such as equipment, livestock, stock, buildings and so on. A valuation must therefore be carried out as the basis for negotiation or for the transaction, whether it is a sale or a gift. A valuation is also needed for farms run as companies: they can sell their assets to one or more buyers, and the handover can also cover the company shares. Note that handing over shares gradually — in stages over time — is simplified, particularly when it is done free of charge. In this respect, the « Dutreil » scheme is very effective at facilitating this type of operation.
What about the land being farmed?
When handing over rented land to a descendant, the preferred tool is the transfer of the agricultural lease (bail rural) to the successor. When the handover is to a third party, however, a new lease must be signed, which requires the landlord's agreement. Where the land is owned, it can be sold, given, let on a 9-year lease, a long-term lease or a transferable lease (bail cessible).
Finally, there is the question of the « contrôle des structures » rules (French farm-structure control) when a farm is handed over. Whether or not they come from the family, the incoming farmer must find out whether they need to apply to the relevant authority for an authorisation to farm (autorisation d'exploiter), and must also consider whether the SAFER may step in.
« To manage is to plan ahead. » The old saying is especially relevant when handing over a business. More than ever, you will need to plan the operation by surrounding yourself with specialists in these issues, so as to define the strategy and actions needed to achieve the result you want.
Types of handover: renting out or selling
Depending on your life plans, you can choose between renting out and selling when you hand over your farm.
You want to remain the owner and rent out your farm
Different types of lease are possible:
- 9-year farm lease (bail à ferme),
- sharecropping (métayage),
- long-term lease,
- 25-year lease,
- career lease,
- emphyteutic lease – 18 to 99 years,
- multi-year farming and grazing agreement (convention pluriannuelle d'exploitation et de pâturage).
You want to sell
Farm businesses can take different legal forms:
- sole trader (single entrepreneur status; no new EIRL can be created since 15 February 2022);
- farming companies:
- SCEA – Société Civile d'Exploitation Agricole (civil farming company),
- EARL – Exploitation Agricole à Responsabilité Limitée (limited-liability farm), with one or more partners,
- GAEC – Groupement Agricole d'Exploitation en Commun (joint farming group),
- GFA – Groupement Foncier Agricole (agricultural land group).
When handing over, it may be advisable to opt for a farming company or group, to make things easier. You pool equipment, finances and people, and hand over your farm gradually. You separate your personal and business assets. And, thanks to the company structure, the farm business can carry on.
What steps should you take to prepare your handover?
First, you need to value your business at its fair price: what is its average annual profitability? What is the land worth? The equipment and facilities? The livestock? Take the time to ask yourself these questions thoroughly, and call on an expert to value your farm.
If you are retiring, plan ahead for the drop in income by contacting the MSA (the farmers' social security fund). Since 1 November 2021, the pension of a farm owner with a full career has been raised to 85% of the net agricultural minimum wage (Chassaigne laws): a personalised estimate from the MSA is still essential.
Estimating the price of your farm
You can combine several parameters to arrive at an estimate.
Asset value — the value of your farm's assets. You must include all of them in the estimate:
Earning value, based on your farm's average profitability — the ratio between income and spending — over recent years.
Comparison with similar farms and the prices at which they were sold.
Finding a buyer
At departmental level, the Répertoire Départ Installation (RDI) — a register of farms for handover — puts you in touch with potential buyers.
Chambers of Agriculture are the entry point to the France Services Agriculture network, the one-stop shop for setting up and handing over farms created by the agricultural orientation law of 24 March 2025, piloted in 2026 and rolled out in every department from 1 January 2027. It helps you build your project, points you in the right direction, answers your questions and helps you find a buyer.
For rented property, when it is put up for sale, the law gives the tenant a pre-emption right, under certain conditions.
Handing over a farm: a project to plan well ahead
Handing over your farm in good conditions is above all about preparation. It is vital to think about your project well in advance, to seek information from the right people and to complete certain essential steps. To this end, Chambres d'agriculture France recommends following a set timetable:
Y - 5 years: 5 to 10 years before retiring, the farmer should already be thinking about how they want to sell their assets and about the handover potential of their farm (buildings, farmed area, etc.).
Y - 3 years: at the latest 3 years before leaving, the farmer must submit their declaration of intention to stop farming (Déclaration d'Intention de Cessation d'Activité Agricole – DICAA). The 2025 agricultural orientation law adapted this system so that farmers handing over are directed to France Services Agriculture earlier: ask your Chamber of Agriculture.
Y - 2 years: the farmer should focus on finding a buyer, after working out the options for selling the farm, in particular with an adviser or handover expert. This can be done via the Répertoire Départ Installation (RDI) or with the help of the SAFER (the rural land agency).
Y - 1 year: the farm should be valued, in particular to establish its profitability potential and the value of its assets (farmed area, land, equipment, livestock, etc.). If the farmer does not own the land and/or buildings, this is also the deadline for informing the landlord of their retirement. While the agricultural lease (bail rural) can be transferred, several conditions must be met — the most important being the landlord's agreement. If the landlord refuses, the matter can be taken to the agricultural land tribunal (tribunal paritaire des baux ruraux).
Y - 6 months: applications for handover aid must be submitted, in particular under the AITA programme (support for farm set-up and handover), whose aid varies from region to region.
Y - 1 month: the accounting formalities for the farm's final financial year must be completed.
After the sale: once the handover has taken place, the farmer must send their declaration that they have stopped trading to the relevant business formalities centre (CFE).
Tax: a point to watch carefully
When you hand over your farm, you may face sometimes heavy taxation because of:
Capital gains on the sale of company shares. Your farm business assets are subject to the ordinary rules on business capital gains when they are sold.
Tax write-backs. The precautionary savings deduction (déduction pour épargne de précaution – DEP), which replaced the DPA and DPI in 2019, lets you build up business savings tax-free. But the amounts deducted must be written back within 10 years, and at the latest when you stop farming: they can then increase taxable profit in the final year (an optional averaging system can limit the effect).
Stock revaluation. If you have written down your stock — valued at cost in the balance sheet — be aware that in the year you stop farming, valuing it at market value may create a new tax charge.
Real estate wealth tax (IFI). The wealth tax (ISF) was replaced in 2018 by the IFI, which only covers property. Rural property used by the farmer for their main business, or let on a long-term or transferable lease, may qualify for full or partial exemptions: selling it, or taking it out of business use, can change the picture.
For the public authorities, farms are not businesses like any other. Why? Simply because they belong to a key sector of the French economy. That is why handing over a farm is tightly regulated.
Handing over a farm: within the family?
To hand over their farm, the farmer has three main options, each with its own rules.
Renting out: the farmer can choose to remain the owner and let the farm to a third party, in particular through a 9-year farm lease, a long-term lease or sharecropping.
Family handover: to hand the farm over free of charge to a family member (descendant, spouse or other relative), you can in particular make a simple gift (with a €100,000 allowance per parent and per child, renewed every 15 years), a gift between spouses or a donation-partage (gift and division of the estate). It is nonetheless preferable to do this with the agreement of all the heirs.
Handover outside the family: if the farmer chooses this route, it is important to get support, in particular to value the farm, find a buyer and obtain grants.
Handing over outside the family
Farm handovers increasingly take place outside the family. You may be about to look for a successor: the reference tool for meeting people who want to set up remains the Répertoire Départ Installation (RDI).
To be put in touch with a young farmer who wants to take over a farm, you must register on the Répertoire Départ Installation (RDI). Contact your Chamber of Agriculture or the prefecture services in your area.
Good to know: farming companies (GAEC, EARL, SCEA, GFA, GFF…) make it easier to hand over a farm. They allow the land or operating capital to be transferred gradually.
These company forms make the handover easier:
financially, because the handover is gradual
legally, in particular because private and business assets are separate
Handing over your farm: who should you contact?
To find a buyer, the main option for the farmer is to register on the Répertoire Départ Installation. Run by the departmental Chambers of Agriculture, it puts people who want to sell their farm in touch with candidates looking to set up. As well as giving listings wide exposure, the platform provides support throughout the handover: choice of transfer method, financial arrangements, information on available aid — the farmer is followed up continuously until the deal is concluded.
The other option is to contact the SAFER in your region. As a land operator responsible in particular for ensuring transparency in the rural land market, it also offers various services to support handovers: setting the sale price, advertising the listing, reviewing applications and selecting the buyer.
Finally, the farmer can find a buyer « outside the family » on their own. However, the agreement may be overturned by the SAFER, which has a pre-emption right and can therefore buy farm property as a priority. This generally happens when the sale price is out of line with the market or the buyer plans a change of use.
Whether or not you use the SAFER, you must notify it of your intention to sell. Contact it directly, or notify the notary handling the transaction.
A handover is a delicate stage in the life of a farm, because it involves administrative formalities, the loss of your income and sometimes heavy taxation linked to the sale. By making the right choices, you can get through it calmly.
The State, which sees farming as a key sector of the economy, provides aid to farmers handing over their business:
to help you find a candidate to take over the farm
to support you financially, because the sale involves costs
Handover aid
Set-up aid for the incoming farmer
Since 2023, the Young Farmers' Grant (DJA) has been the responsibility of the Regions, which manage the EAFRD under the national CAP strategic plan 2023-2027: criteria, amounts and top-ups (setting up outside the family, agro-ecology, takeover cost…) vary from one region to another.
Eligibility conditions:
be a national of the European Union or Switzerland, or hold a residence permit valid for the duration of the business plan
be aged at least 18 and at most 40 when applying
prove your agricultural professional capacity (agricultural diploma at level 4 and an approved Personalised Professional Development Plan, PPP)
set up for the first time as a farm owner, either as a sole trader or as a working partner in a company
have a viable set-up project set out in a business plan (plan d'entreprise)
be able to meet the commitments made in the business plan
You can set up full-time, part-time or progressively, to suit all career and life plans.
State-subsidised young-farmer loans (MTS-JA) were abolished at the end of 2016 and replaced by a top-up to the DJA. Some banks now offer their own discounted loans for new entrants.
Advantages of set-up aid
Higher and/or priority funding under regional investment aid (PCAE, managed by the Regions since 2023)
Priority in the allocation of CAP payment entitlements
Priority under the regional farm-structure plan (access to land)
Reduced registration duties when buying farmland
Specific offers for young farmers: cooperatives, banks, insurers, training…
Access to additional aid through AITA for set-ups outside the family, for farmers handing over… and/or through other local schemes
Tax and social-security contribution exemptions
Set-up aid is implemented by the Regions under the national CAP strategic plan 2023-2027. Selection criteria are set by each region.
The Young Farmers' Grant (DJA)
A grant whose base amount and top-ups are set by each Region.
Exemption from social-security contributions
New farmers under 40 benefit from a partial, sliding-scale exemption from social-security contributions for the 5 years after setting up, within a cap set by ministerial order.
Other financing schemes
Local schemes can complement national aid: regional councils, local authorities, local Initiative platforms…
Support through crowdfunding (Miimosa, Agrilend) or investors such as Labelliance to help finance the capital of the farm being taken over.
The set-up reception point of your Chamber of Agriculture (France Services Agriculture network) is the essential resource centre for all the information you need to set up.
AITA programme:
The AITA programme (support for farm set-up and handover), which succeeded PIDIL, funds — depending on the region — actions for both outgoing and incoming farmers: advice and farm diagnosis, registration on the Répertoire Départ Installation, support for leases or for renting out buildings and housing to a young farmer setting up… Amounts and conditions are set by each region.
To go further and make your handover or takeover project happen, contact your Chamber of Agriculture or your business adviser, who are best placed to support you.
Find listings of farms for sale (in French):
Article updated in October 2026 (2025 agricultural orientation law, CAP 2023-2027, current tax rules).
Sources (in French):
https://www.pleinchamp.com/gestion-de-l-exploitation/fiscalite-juridique/actualites/se-preparer-a-la-transmission-de-l-exploitation-agricole
https://entreprise.mma.fr/connexionpro/transmission-exploitation-agricole.html#.Xjvt-2hKjZt
https://www.generali.fr/professionnel/actu/transmission-exploitation-agricole-etapes-famille/
https://www.terredecompta.com/fiche-conseil/fiche-conseil-juridique/transmission-exploitation-agricole.html
http://www.lafranceagricole.fr/publi-information/dossier-transmission-comment-evaluer-la-valeur-dune-exploitation-agricole-1,5,2684689609.html?utm_source=editoHP
https://www.pleinchamp.com/actualites-generales/actualites/les-jeunes-agriculteurs-lancent-la-semaine-du-renouvellement-des-generations-en-agriculture
https://chambres-agriculture.fr/exploitation-agricole/transmettre-son-exploitation/quelles-aides/
https://chambres-agriculture.fr/exploitation-agricole/sinstaller-en-agriculture/avec-quelles-aides/
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