“Although the inheritance has not been distributed yet. The Treasury already considers you the owner”
Three brothers inherit their parents’ two apartments. One of them is rented to tenants who pay their monthly fee without fail. The three brothers they cannot reach an agreement in the distribution of the inheritance. Nobody gives in, nobody signs, nobody distributes anything. Years go by and the apartments are still there, rented, but none of the brothers were awarded it. Each month they contribute money that no one declares to the Treasury because, according to them, since the inheritance has not been distributed, “they belong to no one.” This reasoning has a serious flaw: for the Treasury, those apartments do belong to someone. Of the three at the same time, from the moment their parents died, although legally the inheritance has not yet been resolved. This is confirmed Alina Dragos and Aitor Fernandeztax advisors TaxDown They see this mistake over and over again among their clients. Co-owners before signing anything. As Alina Dragos confirms, when someone dies, their assets are not left without an owner for a single day. The law distributes property among heirs from minute one even though no one has signed or accepted anything yet. “For the Treasury you are a possible heir to this legacy that is lying,” explains Dragos. This means that, if there are three brothers, each one “temporarily” assumes one third of each asset that makes up the inheritance and assumes its tax costs jointly and severally until its final award is resolved. It is not necessary to distribute anything for the obligation to exist. “Each one has to include the property for one third in the declaration,” says Dragos. And the same thing happens with any income that that property generates. That is, if it is a rented apartment, each heir will pay taxes on the corresponding percentage of the benefit generated by the property. What is a recumbent inheritance?. The name sounds a bit strange, the idea is quite simple. A recumbent inheritance It is the time that passes between someone’s death and the formal acceptance of their heirs. The heritage exists, it has debts and rights, but at the moment it does not have a unique and defined owner. As and as indicated From the Vilches Abogados law firm, this period can last weeks, or extend up to 30 years, depending on how long it takes the heirs to resolve the inheritance. Meanwhile, the property continues to generate income and someone has to answer for it to the Treasury. To do so, the Treasury assigns its own NIF to the inheritance for which its designated heirs will be jointly responsible until its acceptance. Why the obligation is born with death, not with the distribution. The law establishes a period of six months from death to settle the inheritance tax. Whether there is a distribution between the brothers or not. That is, we must “settle the inheritance tax that is six months old,” insists Aitor Fernández, no matter what happens between the heirs. And it’s not just that tax. The rest of the obligations of the heirs on that estate begin to run from that same day. And until it is distributed, it remains “a percentage of each of that property.” It doesn’t matter that the paperwork takes years to resolve. It is not that the inheritance enters a limbo and has no owner during that period of time between death and acceptance of the inheritance. The thing is that everyone is the owner until they agree on the final percentages of the distribution. As such, they must comply with the tax obligations of the inheritance assets from day one. What happens with rents, income and investments in the meantime?. If the inherited apartment is rented or generates some type of income, each heir must declare their share of the rent. It does not matter if the money reaches a single account, or only one of the heirs. It is not only limited to real estate, it also happens with dividends on shares or interests that were part of the deceased’s estate. They belong to the heirs from the first day, whether they have been distributed or not, according to the Tax Agency. Leaving the apartment empty does not free you from the Treasury either.. As an easy-to-understand example, we have talked about tax obligations when one of the assets was rented and generated income before accepting the inheritance. But the tax obligations are there even when the property is not making additional profits and no one lives on it. The Treasury assumes that it could also provide income. It is the well-known income imputation. In this case, a value of 2% of the cadastral value is applied, or 1.1% if the value has been reviewed in the last ten years, which is paid only for have an empty home in your name, or that of several heirs, as happens in an undistributed inheritance. When the distribution of the inheritance finally arrives, each heir will declare the final percentage that corresponds to him and, what was previously divided equally between everyone, now falls only to the person who keeps each asset. In Xataka | If the question is how much money can be donated to a child without declaring it to the Treasury, the law makes it clear: none Image | Unsplash (Towfiqu barbhuiya)
