Charges for Inheritance

Sadly my Dad passed away in november and I have to go to Spain to sort things out on our house. The house is owned by my Mum, Dad my wife and myself, we all had a share each in the house and had a mirrored Spanish will between the 4 of us, with the house passing on to the other remaining owners. Would anyone have an idea how much it will cost in total to sort things out through a solicitor. Thanks in advance for any advice.

Murray

Dear Murray:

I made this  rough calculation once, it may help as an orientation. Were you paents living there as first home?

Your taxes and expenses proportions will be reduced ( compared to the ones showed below)  as you are 3 inheriting 1/4 of the house.

Taxes can be paid in several instalments.

I. ONE SPOUSE TO THE OTHER:

Let's look at the costs and time involved in a probate procedure in Spain in a typical case where one spouse leaves jointly owned real estate property to their marriage partner, and to their two children (25  and 30 years old) as an alternative:

Illustration;

 Jack dies in 2007.

Jack has a property in Spain valued at 300.000 euros.

His Will names his wife (Jill) as heir, and two children as alternative heirs.

Jill, (Jack’s wife) survives Jack.

At the time of Jack’ s passing the property belongs 50% to each of them.

In Spanish law the 50% owned by Jack falls into probate.

Value of the inherited portion (i.e. Jacks half share) therefore is 150.000 euros

Procedure and time frame for the registration of the house in Jill’s name:

• Probate procedure (made by a Spanish Lawyer)
  
• Obtaining Power of attorney for probate procedure = (15 days)
  
• Obtaining Certificate of the Registry of Last Wills = (30 days minimum)
  
• Petition of Will to Notary  = (15 days)
  
• Declaration of goods for payment of ISD ( Inheritance tax)  = (10 days)
  
• Payment of tax = (15 days)
  
• Notarising  probate deed =  ( 10 days)
  
• Registration of inherited portion in Land Registry = (30  days)

Dependent upon the time of year, court workload, notary schedules and delay possibilities, any or all of these time scales could be doubled or more.

OVERALL TIME SCALE:  4 to 6 months.  During that time, if a bank account is also inherited,  it is frozen.

Expenses (approximate):

1.Legal fees for the  probating process are as an average of: 5000 €.

2. Tax to be paid in that case is shown in the graph below

IMPORTANT: In the table below, the notes have been made assuming the property is in Andalucia, other areas may have differing tax rates.

Dear Murray,

I have started a separate thread headed How To Safeguard Against Spanish Inheritance Tax which may be of interest to you. My Consultant I am talking about will not be able to help you not pay the Inheritance Tax in Spain for your Fathers asset, but can help your structure your property so you do not have the Taxes again when any of the other Owners pass away too. Their solution also means you do not require a Will in Spain. On their website you can apply for a free illustration to see how it compares to the IHT figures supplied below. I will send you a private message with their details so you can do your own research and maybe my thread above will be useful to you as well.