Inheritance Tax - Spain

KKubix

My parents jointly owned a property in Spain (Benalmadena - Costa del Sol). Sadly my father died in July leaving his half of the property to my mum.
We are having a nightmare in terms of the inheritance tax (not unexpected) but were wondering if anyone had any advice as to how we should proceed in order to minimise tax going forwards?

1) is it better to keep the property 100% in mum's name?
2) is it better to transfer some (what percent?) into the names of the children (myself and 2 siblings)?

Also, even though my dad left a will transferring the property to my mum, is this still applicable under Spanish law? I have heard that all direct family will potentially get a share. Does this mean that his 50% will be transferred to his children and/or my mum and we'll have to pay inheritance tax separately?

We're trying to work out the most tax efficient way of doing this - now and when my mum dies in the future.
What tax is payable? What is the process for doing this and do we need to go to Spain to register for an IE number?

Any help / advice would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks

xylophone

http://spain.angloinfo.com/money/general-taxes/inheritance-tax/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/expat-money/11104976/EU-court-rules-against-Spain-over-discriminatory-tax-rules.html

Take advice from an expert in the system in both countries.

Example here http://www.mmlawyers.co.uk/services.html but you should do your own research - other members of the expat community may have recommendations?

donna20101

Take a look at the article in The Telegraph (online) about the EU court ruling against Spain on the 18th September as inheritance tax law in Spain will be changing soon. Every region of Spain applies different tax rules at the moment so I suppose it will take them some time to get all the regions together to agree.

The article talks about Spanish Legal Reclaims helping people recover their inheritance tax back so it would seem that your father will be able to recover the taxes he has paid.

:money: