French legal Translation of “benefit”: avantage or bénéfice?

⚠️ A false friend that seems obvious… but isn’t

The word benefit is often automatically translated into French as bénéfice, but that is rarely the best option. In practice, benefit is more commonly rendered as avantage, prestation, or intérêt, depending on the legal or financial context.

🧾 In a Few Isolated Cases: bénéfice

One of the rare cases where benefit is actually translated as bénéfice is in the fixed expression:

• the benefit of the doubt → le bénéfice du doute

👉 But in an accounting context, benefit does not mean profits. The correct term there is profit(s).

⚖️ In Employment and Tax Law: avantage, prestation

The most frequent translation of benefit is avantage, particularly in the fields of employment law, HR, and social security.

Examples:

🔄 In Contracts and Trusts: au profit de

The expression for the benefit of is generally translated as:

• au profit de

• dans l’intérêt de

Example:

• Assets are held for the benefit of the beneficiaries → Les actifs sont détenus au profit des bénéficiaires

✅ In Summary

📌 TransLex’s Advice

Before translating benefit, ask yourself the right questions:

1. Is the context HR, social benefits, tax, or legal?

2. Does the text refer to a material advantage, a pension, or a legal interest?

👉 Reserve bénéfice only for a few fixed expressions or strictly accounting vocabulary (profit).