Succession: what kind of taxation is applied to legacies?

Updated on Friday 21 February 2020

Legacies are subject to inheritance tax, depending on the applicable scale, after abatement deduction, which depends on the family relationship between the testator and the legatee.

Inquire

Legacies and deductions

Legatees are subject to inheritance tax, which must be paid within six months of the death, according to the applicable scale, after the abatement deduction, which depends on the family relationship with the deceased person.

  • For each living or represented child, this reduction is of 100,000€;
  • For each brother and sister, it amounts to 15,932€;
  • For each nephew and niece, it amounts to 7,967€;
  • For each relative beyond the 4th degree and each third-party benefit from a reduction of 1,594 €;
  • For each disabled person who cannot work under the accepted requirements of profitability, the abatement is 159,325 €. This abatement is combined with the personal allowance, applicable according to the degree of relationship.

It must be noted: Calculating the due transfer tax is carried out by taking into account the donations which have already been made, except those more than fifteen year. This is known as donation tax reminder. This means that the value of property which is previously passed on via donation to the same beneficiary, the latter is added to the value of the property, passed on within the framework of the succession, with the exception of donations carried out since more than fifteen years. The granted abatement during the inheritance is reduced by the amount which was applied during the donation, carried out for less than 15 years and when it is completely used, the transfer taxes are calculated by taking the scale units into account, which were already used during a past donation.

Legacy and other tax measures

Careful: Other tax measures do exist, such as special reductions or abatements, partial exemptions, possibilities of installments in certain cases. We encourage you to consult a notary in this area but also other addressed topics.