Drawing Up of a Will
Although it is not obligatory, we strongly recommend you to make a Spanish will in order to avoid future hassle and to facilitate the distribution of your assets in Spain, thus avoiding time-consuming and expensive legal problems for your heirs.
Once you have purchased a property in Spain; although it is not obligatory, you should make a Spanish Will to determine who and how your property and assets will be distributed after your death.
The Spanish civil code allows foreign nationals to make a will in Spain following their own country’s Law.
Therefore; If the Law in your own country permits free disposal of the estate, this frees you from the Spanish Law of Obligatory Heirs, where a testator must leave a proportion of his assets to his direct family members.
As the English law provide free disposal of assets an English person would not therefore be obliged to leave a proportion of his estate to members of his family as is required of a Spaniard.
The Spanish Will should just deal with your assets in Spain, should be made out in two columns, one in Spanish and the other one in English or in whatever language the testator speaks, if you have made a Will in your home country, you should make your lawyer aware of the existence of the Spanish Will in order he can ensure that the contents are not in conflict or that your English Will has not inadvertently revoked your Spanish Will.
Once the Will has been signed in presence of a Public Notary, a copy will be sent to the Central Wills Registry in Madrid as an official record, all the Spanish wills are kept on file to ensure that a legal copy can always be found.
When the time for the settlement of the inheritance comes, your inheritors will not have to use the same solicitor you used to set up your Spanish Will.
If you are the lawful heir to some Spanish assets, do not hesitate to contact us, we will deal with all the necessary legal proceedings.
Should there be a will, and in case of agreement of the parties involved, the process would become much easier and could be completed before a Spanish notary. After having obtained all the required papers, the notary will proceed to divide the inheritance without further delay.
In the absence of a last will and testament, you will need judicial or notary documents declaring you a legitimate heir and, what is more, providing evidence of the laws of the late person’s country of origin in order to justify your claim to the inheritance. These documents, together with the rest of papers required to formalize the inheritance, will then be taken to a notary to complete the legal proceedings.
If, on the contrary, and whether there be a will or not, the parties involved should not reach an agreement, it would be necessary to take the case to court so as to have the inheritance shared out by a judge.
Please, do not hesitate to contact us. Our specialised lawyers will study your case, evaluate your chances of success, and inform you about the paperwork required to inherit.
Inheritance Tax in Spain:
When you receive an inheritance in Spain there is a tax to be paid on this. Sometimes this tax can be a quite a large amount (can be up to a quarter of the value of the property and if you are not directly relate to the deceased then it can be doubled) however there are ways that you can legally avoid paying all of this money. They are as follows:
If you can prove hat you have lived with that person for a period of at least 2 year and on the condition that you will keep the property that you have inherited for a minimum of 10 years after inheriting it then the amount of tax you are required to pay is reduced by up to 95%. However this reduction is only available to official residents.
If the mortgage on the property is very high then you will have your taxation amount reduced.
If you form a family corporation then your tax can be reduced because if somebody should die then you just have to move around the positions of everybody in the company and this way inheritance tax can be avoided however you get other tax costs doing it this way.
This tax should be paid at the Provincial Tax Office (Delegación Provincial of the Consejería de Economía y Hacienda).
The procedure to draw up your will includes:
- Drawing up the Will in Spanish and the language of your choice.
- Assistance at the Notary’s office.
- Translator will sign testament as a witness.
- Translator’s name will be included in the will, thus taking full legal responsibility for the translation.
- Two notarised copies of the testament shall be issued.
Notarial costs are included on the final fees of 250,00 € for a single will
or 200,00 € each for couples.
Bilingual Testaments Available
Spanish – ENGLISH
SWEDISH (Svensk)
NORWEGIAN (Norska)
FRENCH (Français)
ARABIC (العربية)
ITALIAN (Italiano)
RUSSIAN (Русский)
GERMAN (Deutsch)
ROMANIAN (Română)
DANISH (Dansk)
FINNISH (Suomi)
