Spanish inheritance law specifies how you may dispose of your estate in Spain. There are several rules, called forced heirship rules, that establish restrictions on how you distribute your estate.

The nationwide Law of Obligatory Heirs states that if the deceased was married, the spouse keeps 50% of all jointly-owned property and the rest goes towards the estate, which is divided into three portions:

Nevertheless, if it is being stipulated in an international or Spanish will, the application of the testator´s nationality home law, then the Spanish inheritance law will not be applied to either Spanish or worldwide assets.

In fact, EU citizens living in Spain, can now choose whether the law of their home country or their country of residence applies to their estate.

Making a will is relatively quick, and its cost is not very high (less than 50 euros in normal conditions), so it is highly recommended to carry it out to avoid future problems, since the notary will advise you so that you can clearly capture the will of the testator.

Although writing a will in Spain is not essential, it is a way of ensuring that the assets will be disposed of according to the wishes of the testator. As such, foreign wills are valid and enforceable, however, they must be translated into Spanish by sworn translation and legalized before a Spanish consul (or apostilled where appropriate).

Another of the fundamental questions is geography, where should I pay inheritance taxes? In the Autonomous Community where the deceased has stayed a greater number of days in the period of the five years immediately prior to his death. In order to prove it, in addition to the registration certificate, there must be other circumstances that ratify it, such as electricity and water consumption, enrollment in the health center, etc.

When it comes to evaluating assets and rights, the law follows the real or market value criteria, which is the one that has been agreed between independent parties. For some time now, the determination of the market value of urban real estate for tax purposes has been resolved with more or less success, its minimum valuation consisting of multiplying the cadastral value by a coefficient published by the Junta de Andalucía each year according to the municipality where it resides. Therefore, a minimum accepted by the Junta de Andalucía is established, thus avoiding future verifications by the Administration.

However, the valuation of companies, plots, rustic lands, rights, etc., may be of more complexity. For tax purposes and in order to respect the will of the deceased, the advice of a specialist in the matter is recommended

There are cases in which the value of the assets is very low or the debts are higher than these, and therefore you may not want to accept the inheritance. There is the possibility of renouncing the inheritance once the deceased has died, formalizing that resignation in writing before a notary, and with very different tax consequences depending on the favor of a specific person or not, and before or after the tax is prescribed on Successions and Donations, issues that must be the subject of individualized advice.