Non resident beneficiaries of a will

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El Cid
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Non resident beneficiaries of a will

Postby El Cid » Tue Dec 17, 2019 7:21 pm

A resident friend recently died and the assets, including a house, were left to her 3 UK resident children.

Has anyone had any recent experience of the current procedure for handling the process involved? Specifically, does each beneficiary have to have an NIE number or is a passport acceptable. Do they all have to visit the notary to sign the inheritance escritura?

Two of the children are step children so some IHT will be payable.

Anything else of importance?

Sid

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Enrique
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Re: Non resident beneficiaries of a will

Postby Enrique » Tue Dec 17, 2019 7:28 pm

Hi El Cid,
Chrissiehope may have some info on your enquiry ........... :idea:
All my best learning experiences start with a problem I need to solve.

Beachcomber
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Re: Non resident beneficiaries of a will

Postby Beachcomber » Tue Dec 17, 2019 8:13 pm

Yes, they all have to have NIE numbers but the signing at the notary can be done by a third party with a power of attorney from each of them.

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Re: Non resident beneficiaries of a will

Postby chrissiehope » Wed Dec 18, 2019 12:01 am

In our case, only half the property was involved (we owned it jointly), so the 2 daughters (from previous marriage) inherited hubby's half. They still had to pay IHT, tho' I think it was a lower rate - I seem to remember around €6000 ish for the two of them. It took a while, and in our case we had to have a new escritura reflecting the new joint ownership ( 50% me & 25% each to the daughters). This dragged on a bit, as the Registry had a problem getting their heads around my 2 names (previously married, divorced, re-married) which was finally resolved by my sending the original certificates.
I wasn't really involved in the IHT part of it, so don't really know how that bit worked.

Hope this helps anyway
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Re: Non resident beneficiaries of a will

Postby nevillewillmott » Wed Feb 12, 2020 12:19 pm

Hi

Just discovered this thread

Consanguinistically at least my situation seems straightforward. My wife and I (both UK residents) have a property in Spain. We have two children who are also UK residents. Question - thinking ahead to the time that the Spanish property is passed on to our children, is it necessary/advisable to make a Spanish will to expedite the inheritance process ?

Any advice/thoughts would be appreciated

Aprovecho la ocasion para enviaros un saludo cordial

Neville Willmott

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Re: Non resident beneficiaries of a will

Postby Beachcomber » Wed Feb 12, 2020 1:26 pm

Yes. It will be much cheaper and easier than relying on your UK will. It should refer to Spanish assets only.

If it as simple as you say you should be able to arrange this directly with a notary although you may need a translator if the notary does not speak English.

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Re: Non resident beneficiaries of a will

Postby dxf » Thu Feb 13, 2020 7:47 pm

Hola

I recently found out that you can pass on your house to your children free of taxes if you are all still living. This is the first time I have heard of this and have no proof but was at the notary when it was done

El Cid
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Re: Non resident beneficiaries of a will

Postby El Cid » Thu Feb 13, 2020 8:10 pm

I’m not sure it’s that easy. Beachcomber will know.

Sid

elusive
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Re: Non resident beneficiaries of a will

Postby elusive » Thu Feb 13, 2020 9:06 pm

Gift tax?

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Re: Non resident beneficiaries of a will

Postby Beachcomber » Thu Feb 13, 2020 9:52 pm

As always there is conflicting information on this subject from various third party sites but it appears that there is now a 99% discount after applying the formula for calculating the tax due. This only applies to those in groups 1 and 2.

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Re: Non resident beneficiaries of a will

Postby nevillewillmott » Sat Feb 15, 2020 11:46 am

What are groups 1 and 2? Income tax bands? Highest lowest?

El Cid
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Re: Non resident beneficiaries of a will

Postby El Cid » Sat Feb 15, 2020 12:13 pm

No, they are the relationship between the deceased and the beneficiary.

Group I: children (including adopted) under 21 years
Group II: children (including adopted) older than 21, grandchildren, spouses and parents/grandparents (including adoptive)
Group III: siblings, aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews, in-laws and their ascendants/descendants , step children
Group IV: cousins, all other relatives, unmarried partners (unless the region allows it)

Sid

katy
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Re: Non resident beneficiaries of a will

Postby katy » Sat Feb 15, 2020 6:59 pm

I remember posting on here about Spanish inheritance law being a minefield. Seems ok from Husband to wife etc. . As the law has changed I think. Myself and 5 other relatives inherited from an Aunt. We were 6 Cousins and nephews/nieces. The worse thing was unlike the UK where taxes and debts come out of the estate inheritors have to pay upfront within 6 months. None of us wanted to pay out thousands of pounds when houses were lingering years on the market.
Bottom line was we did a deal with Spanish Lawyer. The villa was valued at £500,000+ we received a grand sum of around 22,000 each. The real winners was the Lawyer and the taxes.
Beacause of the system one in ten Spaniards renounce their inheritance.

https://www.abc.es/economia/abci-mas-ci ... e.co.uk%2F

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Re: Non resident beneficiaries of a will

Postby Manchesteral » Sat Feb 15, 2020 7:15 pm

Good thread this, thanks, it has answered some of my yet unasked questions.
I have said for years that I will never become a Spanish resident, due to personal circumstances I have now revised my thoughts and decided to apply for citizenship, some of the comments here have been very helpful :-)

elusive
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Re: Non resident beneficiaries of a will

Postby elusive » Sat Feb 15, 2020 9:21 pm

Residency manchester?

El Cid
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Re: Non resident beneficiaries of a will

Postby El Cid » Sat Feb 15, 2020 11:45 pm

You will have to have been resident for 10 years to get citizenship. As Elusive said, do you mean residency?

Sid

Manchesteral
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Re: Non resident beneficiaries of a will

Postby Manchesteral » Sun Feb 16, 2020 12:04 am

elusive wrote:Residency manchester?
Yes, I have vocally here opposed it in the past but my wife decided she needed her freedom so now she can have it, my lad's grown up and taken care of so my plan is to move permanently to Gran Canaria, put my savings there and live as a legal resident, I am currently in the process of applying for residencia !

nevillewillmott
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Re: Non resident beneficiaries of a will

Postby nevillewillmott » Sun Feb 16, 2020 6:44 pm

katy wrote:I remember posting on here about Spanish inheritance law being a minefield. Seems ok from Husband to wife etc. . As the law has changed I think. Myself and 5 other relatives inherited from an Aunt. We were 6 Cousins and nephews/nieces. The worse thing was unlike the UK where taxes and debts come out of the estate inheritors have to pay upfront within 6 months. None of us wanted to pay out thousands of pounds when houses were lingering years on the market.
Bottom line was we did a deal with Spanish Lawyer. The villa was valued at £500,000+ we received a grand sum of around 22,000 each. The real winners was the Lawyer and the taxes.
Beacause of the system one in ten Spaniards renounce their inheritance.

https://www.abc.es/economia/abci-mas-ci ... e.co.uk%2F

Hi

This is an alarming post. I hope to avoid this type of problem with a Spanish will. Did your aunt have a Spanish will?

While there are no major debts or taxes attached to my Spanish property, it occurs to me that while the property is waiting to be sold, there will be continuing charges eg electricity, water and management charges to be paid. I imagine these charges would have to be paid as they become due as opposed to being settled from the proceeds of the property sale, which would be preferable. Would a Spanish will help here?

Saludos cordiales

Manchesteral
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Re: Non resident beneficiaries of a will

Postby Manchesteral » Sun Feb 16, 2020 9:38 pm

El Cid wrote:You will have to have been resident for 10 years to get citizenship. As Elusive said, do you mean residency?

Sid
Sorry, I meant residency !

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Re: Non resident beneficiaries of a will

Postby ashtondav » Thu Feb 20, 2020 4:27 pm

nevillewillmott wrote:
katy wrote:I remember posting on here about Spanish inheritance law being a minefield. Seems ok from Husband to wife etc. . As the law has changed I think. Myself and 5 other relatives inherited from an Aunt. We were 6 Cousins and nephews/nieces. The worse thing was unlike the UK where taxes and debts come out of the estate inheritors have to pay upfront within 6 months. None of us wanted to pay out thousands of pounds when houses were lingering years on the market.
Bottom line was we did a deal with Spanish Lawyer. The villa was valued at £500,000+ we received a grand sum of around 22,000 each. The real winners was the Lawyer and the taxes.
Beacause of the system one in ten Spaniards renounce their inheritance.

https://www.abc.es/economia/abci-mas-ci ... e.co.uk%2F

Hi

This is an alarming post. I hope to avoid this type of problem with a Spanish will. Did your aunt have a Spanish will?

While there are no major debts or taxes attached to my Spanish property, it occurs to me that while the property is waiting to be sold, there will be continuing charges eg electricity, water and management charges to be paid. I imagine these charges would have to be paid as they become due as opposed to being settled from the proceeds of the property sale, which would be preferable. Would a Spanish will help here?

Saludos cordiales
No, you can't avoid it it. If you leave the propeerty to two people and the IHT bill is €200,000 they have to find €200,000 within 6 months, before they can own and sell the property. Luckily we are not resident so have assets in the UK which can be liquidated and used to pay the bill. Otherwise our nieces would no doubt renounce the inheritance.


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