My mother is a Spanish national living in Catalunya. She has a property and assets (~$120k) which she would like to distribute evenly between me and my 2 brothers for when the inevitable happens. She has written a will to ensure this is executed according to her wishes, however, we want to minimise our IHT liability and more importantly we want to keep our roots in Spain by either keeping the apartment of sell and buy a different apartment in the south of Spain.
She went to a Notario to ask what the implications of IHT would be for us and he said that it would be 45%, however he also confirmed that if we paid him $5k, he could reduce the liability to just 5%. He also confirmed that we should do this before article 50 is executed and Britain is out of Europe as we, her sons, are British nationals.
Reading the paper around IHT from Mark Stuklin, the notario’s suggestion seems to me to be one of those sales pitch poppycocks.
Is the Notario correct or if he is not what would you recommend my next steps would be to ensure I am doing the right thing but more importantly my mother’s assets is not consumed by a greedy system.
When Spanish property has been in peoples own personal names and there is a death it is Spanish Inheritance Tax that would have to be paid by the Beneficiary as per the Will.
I have also been aware that for Spanish property they can be in a corporate structure, like a UK Limited Company, so that on death the shares in the Company pass to the Beneficiary outside of Spain so no Spanish inheritance Tax to pay.
With the Spanish property being in a UK Company structure meant the Beneficiaries of the property did not have problems with Spain Tax office whilst Probate takes place.
Thanks for your feedback Mark. The feedback I am getting is various but I am trying to look for the best option. What would you suggest should be my next step, who should I make contact with to direct me on the right path?