The deadline for filing Spanish Inheritance Tax is six months and it runs from the date of death, not from the day the family tracks down the brother who lives in Germany, and not from the day the deed is signed. A further six-month extension can be requested, but the request has to go in within the first five months, and many families find out it existed once they have already lost it. If the deadline passes with nothing filed, the tax authority adds a late-filing surcharge that grows month by month, plus interest, and each heir pays that on their own share even where another heir caused the delay. If there is a flat or business premises involved, the municipal capital gains tax has its own six-month period from the same date. When an estate with an heir outside Spain reaches our office, the first thing we look at is the calendar, because everything that follows is done against the clock.
This article has two different readers. One is the heir who lives abroad and needs to know how to accept and what will be asked of them. The other is the family in A Coruña whose inheritance is stuck because the one abroad does not answer or will not sign. I explain the two situations separately, because the tools are not the same.
Which law governs your inheritance when a second country is involved
For deaths after 17 August 2015, Regulation (EU) 650/2012 decides which civil law applies to a succession with international elements. The general rule is the law of the country where the deceased was habitually resident at death, regardless of nationality, unless a will chose the law of their nationality. A Galician retiree in Switzerland with a house in Oleiros may have a succession governed by Swiss law if that choice was never made, and a German who had lived in Sada for ten years may fall under the Spanish Civil Code with its forced shares, which I cover in this article on the forced share. The Regulation deals with the civil side, who inherits and how much, and expressly leaves tax out, which each State regulates on its own. This is the first question to settle, because it determines which will is valid, what each person is entitled to and even which notary can act.
First situation, you live outside Spain
The documents and their international validation
Any Spanish inheritance requires the death certificate, the certificate from the General Registry of Last Wills, which states whether the deceased made a will and before which notary, the certificate of life insurance contracts and, if there is a will, an authorised copy of the last one. If there is no will, the declaration of intestate heirs is handled before a notary, which since Law 15/2015 on Voluntary Jurisdiction no longer goes through the courts. To that are added the ID or passport of each heir and the title deeds to the assets.
Where the death occurred outside Spain, the foreign death certificate needs a Hague apostille and a sworn translation, unless it is issued on the multilingual form of the Vienna Convention. Where the deceased was a Spanish national resident abroad, the death must be registered at the consular Civil Registry. These are the details that hold an inheritance up by weeks when they surface at the notary’s office on signing day.
Accepting without travelling, the power of attorney granted abroad
You do not have to come to Spain. Acceptance and partition take place before a Spanish notary and you can be represented by an attorney-in-fact, usually another heir or the lawyer. That power of attorney can be granted in three ways.
The simplest is to go to the Spanish consulate in your country of residence, because the consul performs notarial functions and the power signed there is a Spanish notarial document, with no apostille or translation needed. The drawback is the appointment, which at some consulates takes months.
The second is to sign before a local notary. The document then needs the apostille under the Hague Convention of 5 October 1961, issued by the designated authority in that country, and a sworn translation into Spanish. The Spanish notary must also carry out what is called an equivalence assessment, checking that the foreign notary performs a function comparable to the Spanish one. With powers from some countries, where a notary public merely witnesses a signature without checking content or capacity, that assessment has caused problems and some notaries reject them. That is why the text of the power is drafted from Spain before you go to sign it, with the specific authority the estate will require, which is not the same if a flat has to be sold, if the estate has to be accepted with benefit of inventory or if an arrangement has to be reached with the tax authority.
If your country is not party to the Hague Convention, there is no apostille and diplomatic legalisation is needed, a circuit that runs through that country’s foreign ministry and the Spanish consulate. It is slower and has to be counted inside the six-month deadline.
The third, recent route is granting the power by videoconference before a Spanish notary through the Citizen’s Notarial Portal, which Law 11/2023 opened for certain powers. It requires a Spanish digital certificate and does not cover every act, so it has to be checked first whether it works for what you need. What never works is a document with an electronic signature or a scanned PDF, even though that signature is valid for other contracts, as I explain in this article on electronic signatures. An inheritance requires a public deed.
The NIE or NIF, without it there is no inheritance
To pay Inheritance Tax and to register a property in your name you need a Spanish tax identification number. If you are a foreign national, that number is the NIE, applied for at the consulate or in Spain at the National Police, and a representative with a power of attorney can apply on your behalf. If you are a Spanish national resident abroad, your DNI serves, though your consular registration should be up to date. In certain cases the Tax Agency assigns a provisional NIF to a non-resident to meet a specific tax obligation. This is applied for on day one, because without a number the tax cannot be filed and the deadline does not wait.
Accepting with benefit of inventory from abroad
If you suspect the deceased left debts, guarantees, a mortgage above the value of the flat or a business with unpaid suppliers, plain acceptance makes you liable for the estate’s debts with your own assets. The alternative is acceptance with benefit of inventory, governed by articles 1010 and following of the Civil Code, under which you are liable only up to the inherited assets. It is done before a notary, requires an inventory of assets and debts and is subject to short deadlines, measured in days, which run from when you learn you are an heir or from when you have estate assets in your possession. It can be done through an attorney-in-fact, but the power must expressly include that authority and must be ready in time, because the benefit of inventory deadline is far shorter than the tax one.
The European Certificate of Succession
Regulation 650/2012 created the European Certificate of Succession, issued in Spain by the notary handling the estate, which proves in any other Member State, except Denmark and Ireland, who the heirs are and with what share, with no legalisation or apostille. It serves, for instance, for an heir resident in France to recover a French bank account of the deceased or to register a property in Belgium without repeating the inheritance there. It does not apply to the United Kingdom, which never joined the Regulation. If the estate has assets in more than one EU country, requesting it in the same deed saves an entire second procedure.
Inheritance Tax for the non-resident heir
This is where overpayment is most common. A non-resident heir is taxed in Spain only on assets located in Spain, under what is called limited liability, and files the tax with the National Tax Management Office of the Spanish Tax Agency, not with the Xunta de Galicia. That does not mean paying the State rate. Since the judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union of 3 September 2014 and the successive reforms of the second additional provision of Law 29/1987, completed by Law 11/2021, every non-resident, whether EU or not, is entitled to apply the rules of the relevant autonomous region. If the deceased lived in Galicia, Galician rules apply, which provide a reduction of one million euros for spouse, descendants and ascendants. If the deceased was not resident in Spain, the rules of the region where the highest-value assets are located apply.
Anyone who filed as a non-resident under State rules, without the regional reduction, paid too much and, if four years have not passed since the end of the voluntary period, can claim a refund. We have seen this in estates of Galician emigrants in Switzerland and Argentina.
| Deadline | How long | Counted from | If it lapses |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inheritance Tax | 6 months, extendable by 6 more if requested within the first 5 | Date of death | Surcharge growing by month of delay, 15 % after one year, plus interest |
| Municipal capital gains tax | 6 months, extendable up to one year on request | Date of death | Council surcharge and interest |
| Notarial demand to the silent heir | 30 calendar days | Service by the notary | The inheritance is deemed accepted outright |
| Limitation period for Inheritance Tax | 4 years | End of the voluntary period, or of the extension | The tax authority can no longer assess, nor can the heir claim a refund |
The four deadlines in the table are counted differently and cut across each other. The tax extension does not extend the municipal one, and silence in response to the notarial demand has civil effects unrelated to tax. In our office we run the calendar on both fronts at once, which is why an estate with an heir abroad is entrusted to a lawyer from the start and not once the first deadline has gone. You can see what we do in civil law.
Double taxation and what comes afterwards
Your country of residence may also tax what you inherit in Spain. Spain has specific inheritance tax treaties only with France, Greece and Sweden. With every other country, avoiding paying twice depends on the double taxation relief provided by the law of your country of residence, and in the reverse case, an heir resident in Spain with assets abroad, on the credit for foreign tax paid that Law 29/1987 provides. Before filing anything it is worth knowing how your country treats that inheritance, because the order and manner of payment can change the final bill.
If you are allocated a property and go on living abroad, another relationship with the Spanish tax authority begins that does not end with the inheritance. You will pay the IBI property tax every year and, even if you do not rent the flat out, you will have to file Non-Resident Income Tax on imputed income, calculated on the cadastral value. When you sell, the buyer withholds 3 % of the price on account of your gain and you are taxed on the difference between the sale value and the value declared in the inheritance, so the value put in the deed today decides tomorrow’s tax.
Registration at the Land Registry
The deed of acceptance and partition is registered at the Land Registry, and the registrar requires proof that Inheritance Tax and the municipal capital gains tax have been paid or filed. Until the property is registered in your name you cannot sell or mortgage it, and no bank will accept the sale of a flat still in a dead person’s name. Many emigrants’ inheritances are accepted but left unregistered for decades, and the problem surfaces when the next generation tries to sell.
Second situation, the heir abroad does not answer
Here the reader is the family in Spain who has spent months waiting for a reply. Partitioning an estate requires the agreement of all heirs, and a single one, by staying silent, brings it to a halt. The law offers several tools, in ascending order.
The notarial demand
Article 1005 of the Civil Code, as worded by Law 15/2015, allows any interested party to ask a notary to notify the heir that they have thirty calendar days to accept, accept with benefit of inventory or renounce. If they do not reply within that period, the inheritance is deemed accepted outright. It is a powerful tool, because it turns silence into acceptance and removes the argument that the heir abroad has not yet decided anything. When the recipient lives in another EU State, service is effected through the channels of the European Service Regulation, and outside the EU through the 1965 Hague Convention, which adds weeks, so it should be launched early.
When they have accepted but will not sign the partition
Accepting is not partitioning, and an heir may have accepted and still not sign. Article 1051 of the Civil Code provides that no co-heir is obliged to remain in co-ownership, and from there the following routes open up. If the testator appointed an executor-partitioner, that person carries out the partition without the absent heir’s signature. If none was appointed, article 1057 allows heirs representing at least half the estate to ask the notary or the Court Clerk to appoint a court-designated partitioner, whose partition is approved unless all heirs confirm it. And if that does not resolve it either, there remains the judicial division of the estate under articles 782 and following of the Civil Procedure Act, slower and more expensive, through which the court ends up making the distribution.
Which of these routes suits, at what moment and with what valuation of the assets depends on the make-up of the estate and the attitude of the heir abroad, and that is the office’s work. What you can know is that an estate is not blocked forever by an heir who does not respond, and that every month of waiting has a tax cost.
Whereabouts unknown
If nobody knows where the heir is, the notarial demand cannot be served. For those cases the Civil Code provides for the appointment of a defender of the missing person and, once the statutory periods have passed without news, a declaration of legal absence with a representative who acts in the estate on their behalf. It is a separate procedure, before the Court Clerk, and must be started as early as possible because it does not suspend the tax deadline.
What you can do today
Obtain the death certificate and, fifteen working days after the death, the certificate of last wills. Locate the will or the name of the notary. Note the date of death and count five months, because that is the last day to request the tax extension. Gather the title deeds to the properties, the latest IBI receipts and the deceased’s bank statements. Do not sign any renunciation or assignment of inheritance rights sent to you by another heir without a lawyer having reviewed it, because a renunciation is irrevocable. And be wary of calls or emails from supposed agents asking for a copy of your passport or a payment to «unblock» the inheritance, an area where very convincing bank impersonation scams already operate.
What is at stake if you do it alone
Mistakes in these estates are expensive and some cannot be undone. A power of attorney signed with insufficient authority, or before a notary who fails the equivalence assessment, means repeating the trip or the consular appointment and eats into the deadline. A tax return filed under State rules, without the Galician reduction, means paying tens of thousands of euros too much. A tacit acceptance, by drawing on an account or selling furniture, forfeits the benefit of inventory where there were debts. And an heir in Spain who waits for the one abroad to make up their mind accumulates surcharges that will not be recovered.
In our office we prepare the entire estate from A Coruña, draft the power of attorney with the authority the partition requires, coordinate with the consulate or the foreign notary, file the tax under the correct rules and, if the heir abroad will not cooperate, activate the appropriate legal route. You can call +34 677 841 007 or write through the contact page, and we do this with clients who are abroad as well. Have to hand the death certificate, the will or the notary’s details if you have them, a list of the heirs with their country of residence, an approximate list of assets and debts and your identity document. With that on the first call we can already tell you how much time you have left and what is needed.
Frequently asked questions
Can I accept an inheritance in Spain without travelling?
Yes. You can grant a power of attorney at the Spanish consulate in your country, which is valid directly, or before a local notary with a Hague apostille and sworn translation, and with that power another heir or the lawyer signs the deed on your behalf at the notary’s office. The power has to be drafted beforehand with the specific authority the estate requires, including authority to accept with benefit of inventory if there are debts.
What happens if the heir who lives abroad does not answer or sign?
The family in Spain can ask a notary to serve notice of a thirty-calendar-day period to accept or renounce, and if they stay silent, the inheritance is deemed accepted. If they accept but will not sign the partition, there is the court-designated partitioner and the judicial division of the estate, which allow distribution without their signature. Meanwhile the tax deadline keeps running for everyone.
Does a non-resident heir pay more Spanish Inheritance Tax?
They should not. Since the reform of Law 29/1987 every non-resident can apply the rules of the relevant autonomous region, in Galicia with a reduction of one million euros for spouse, descendants and ascendants. The tax is filed with the Spanish Tax Agency in Madrid, not with the Xunta, and anyone who paid under State rules by mistake can claim a refund within four years.
Do I need a lawyer to unblock an inheritance with an heir abroad?
If everyone agrees, there is a clear will, a single property and the heir abroad can get to the consulate, the notary’s office handles the inheritance without a lawyer and it is not worth paying for one. It pays when a power of attorney has to be drafted for a foreign notary, when debts are suspected, when there are assets in two countries, when the heir abroad does not respond or when the amounts mean a tax mistake costs more than the fee. In very low-value estates with an uncooperative heir abroad, the honest answer is sometimes that the cost of forcing the partition exceeds what will be received, and we will tell you that too.