Inheritance tax
International tax law distinguishes between an estate tax and an inheritance tax. An inheritance tax is a tax paid by a person who inherits money or property of a person who has died, whereas an estate tax is a levy on the estate (money and property) of a person who has died.[1] However, this distinction is not always observed; for example, the UK's "inheritance tax" is a tax on the assets of the deceased,[2] and strictly speaking is therefore an estate tax.
For historical reasons, the term death duty is still used colloquially (though not legally) in the UK and some Commonwealth countries. For political, statutory and other reasons, the term death tax is sometimes used to refer to estate tax in the United States.
Some jurisdictions formerly had estate or inheritance taxes, but have abolished them:
Some jurisdictions have never levied any form of tax in the event of death:
The United States imposed a succession duty by the War Revenue Act of 1898 on all legacies or distributive shares of personal property exceeding $10,000 (worth $308,902 in 2020 dollars[63]). This was a tax on the privilege of succession, and devises and land distributions of land were unaffected. The duty ran from 75 cents on the $100 to $5 on the $100, if the legacy or share in question did not exceed $25,000. On those over that value, the rate was multiplied 11 times on estates up to $100,000, twofold on those from $100,000 to $200,000, 21 times on those from $500,000 to a $1 million, and threefold for those exceeding a million. This statute was upheld as constitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Many of the states also impose succession duties, or transfer taxes; generally, however, on collateral and remote successions; sometimes progressive, according to the amount of the succession. The state duties generally touch real estate successions as well as those to personal property. If a citizen of state A owns registered bonds of a corporation chartered by state B, which he has put for safe keeping in a deposit vault in state C, his estate may thus have to pay four succession taxes, one to state A, to which he belongs and which, by legal fiction, is the seat of all his personal property; one to state B, for permitting the transfer of the bonds to the legatees on the books of the corporation; one to state C, for allowing them to be removed from the deposit vault for that purpose; and one to the United States.[62]
The different U.S. states all have other regulations regarding inheritance tax:
Some U.S. states impose inheritance or estate taxes (see inheritance tax at the state level):
Impuesto de sucesiones, in Spain, is the inheritance tax "that you must pay for the transference of goods due to the decease of a person. When a person dies in Spain, the set of goods will pass to their successors (heirs or legatees), and is for this acquisition of goods, rights, and obligations for which this tax must be paid".[72] In Spain, the tax is regulated in Law 29/1987, of December 18, on Inheritance and Donation Tax[73] by Royal Decree 1629/1991, of November 8, which approves the Tax Regulation on Inheritance and Donations.[74]
It is a progressive tax, from 7.65% to 34% not including bonuses or reductions. However, rebates or reductions are common in most of the autonomous communities, with several of them reducing the tax rate to 1%, sometimes even to 0% if the tax base does not exceed a certain minimum. The applicable rate also depends on the proximity of the recipient or heir, being lower the greater its proximity to the deceased or donor (descendants, spouse...). It is usually summarized with the donation tax, as many parents transfer their goods inter vivos to their heirs.
From this tax, the Spanish state gets 2,360,932,000 euros (2019) which is a 17.3% of the total recollected by the autonomous communities.[75]
This tax can be partially deduced according to the blood proximity of the person who will inherit the goods. The amount to deduce vary considerably depending on the autonomous community, and the reduction on the amount to pay has a descendant character, according to the membership group:[76]
History of the tax
There's a consensus that this tax is a direct heir of the vicesima hereditatium, created during the reign of emperor Augustus, taxing heirlooms and legacies. In Rome this tax was considered a donation and it depended on if the subject who passes their goods to their heir was alive (inter vivos) or deceased (mortis causa). This tax disappeared during the Middle Ages and was again restored temporally with Charles the IV in 1798, and finally consolidated on 1829 with two rates depending on consanguinity 2% for spouses and 12% for the intestate until IV grade[76]:.
This tax will be oscillating for almost two centuries between 1 and 15% depending on the proximity group until the 11th of June 1964, where acquisitions mortis causa will be drastically increased compared to the previous centuries.
It will then be eliminated temporarily in 1977 and restored in 1987 which will prevail until now. Here the reductions that you can make on the payment are specified according to the 4 Groups:[76]
It is also presented a reduction of 47,858.59 euros for people who present a legal condition of handicapped over 35%. This deduction can increase up to 150,253.03 in handicaps over 65%.
Decentralization on the Spanish autonomous communities
You can calculate the tax you must pay following the state law. However, in Spain the calculus of the amount you pay depends on the specific autonomous community where you have your tax residence. In this scenario you must pay a percentage of the amount you inherit plus a certain quantity according to the total quantity you inherit.
The only Autonomous community excluded are Navarra and the Basque Country because they have their own tax system, and they work independently from the other communities or the central state.
This tax is deducible in many ways related to the consanguinity of the person who inherits, to the handicap level, the number of properties, usage of this properties, possession of enterprises, condition of victim of gender violence or terrorism.[90] There are a lot of causes that can reduce notably your amount to pay. Moreover, this amount and reductions vary enormously according to the Autonomous Community you reside. For example, in Galicia, direct relatives of the deceased person will be exempted to pay the inheritance tax until the amount to inherit doesn't arrive the million euros.[91] While in Asturias if you inherit a 700,000 property, the person will pay around a 20% of the amount depending on the variables.[92]
Other taxation applied to inheritance[edit]
In some jurisdictions, when assets are transferred by inheritance, any unrealized increase in asset value is subject to capital gains tax, payable immediately. This is the case in Canada, which has no inheritance tax.
When a jurisdiction has both capital gains tax and inheritance tax, inheritances are generally exempt from capital gains tax.
In some jurisdictions, like Austria, death gives rise to the local equivalent of gift tax. This was the UK model before the Inheritance Tax in 1986 was introduced, when estates were charged to a form of gift tax called Capital Transfer Tax. Where a jurisdiction has both gift tax and inheritance tax, it is usual to exempt inheritances from gift tax. Also, it is common for inheritance taxes to share some features of gift taxes, by taxing some transfers which happen during the lifetime of the giver rather than on death. The UK, for example, subjects "lifetime chargeable transfers" (usually gifts to trusts) to inheritance tax.
