Page 46 - Property Portfolio - August 2019

5 STEPS TO BE FOLLOWED FOr DEALING WITH AN

INHErITANCE OF AN EXPAT Or NON-rESIDENT IN SPAIN

Organizing an inheritance in Spain is a difficult 3rd Step: the heirs or relatives of the
task for everyone, specially if you don’t know deceased person will have to sign an
the Spanish law. inheritance deed in front of a Spanish Public
Notary in order to accept and distribute all
In this post we explain the basic steps to be the assets. Please, be aware that debts are
followed when a non-resident or expat passes also inherited so it is important to confirm that
away owning assets in Spain. It is necessary the value of the assests is higher than any
to carry out a legal procedure to change possible debts.
ownership of assets of the deceased person
into the name of the heirs. 4th Step: Filling Inheritance Tax Form 650
with the local Tax Office. For EU citizens there
1st Step: Get an original death certificate. are allowances up to 1.000.000 euros per
This official document is normally provided heir (in case of direct relatives: spouse and
by the funeral company and it can also be children), so in most cases there won’t be any
obtained from the Civil Registry. inheritance tax to be paid. The inheritance
taxes must be filled within 6 months from the
2nd Step: Get original certificates of the last date of the death.
will (if any) signed by the deceased person,
as well as the certificate of any life insurance 5th Step: Take the inheritance title deeds
policies in place. to the Land Registry in case the deceased
person owned a real state property or to
With these certificates we will confirm if the banks /insurance companies in case the
deceased person made a will in Spain. We deceased person had funds, bank accounts
can find two situations: or life insurance policies.
a) Existence of a will made inside or outside
Spain. In this case the assets will be We recommend hiring the professional
distributed according to the wishes of the services of a solicitor so this procedure can
deceased person. be done in a speedy and correct way.
b) Non-existence of a will. If the deceased
person never made a will, the distribution
of his assets will be made according to the
laws of his nationality.

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