Spanish and English wills

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tarotwoman
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Spanish and English wills

Postby tarotwoman » Thu Sep 10, 2009 12:20 pm

Hi,

My husband and I both have English mirror wills each leaving 100% of assets to each other. We do not have a Spanish wills although we live permanently here, are resident and pay tax to Spain.

From what I understand, if one of us were to die as things stand because we are English nationals, we can (with correct specific paperwork) use these wills for any non-Spanish assets ie. offshore savings, but our Spanish property ie. house must go by Spanish law and our children get a share each unless they sign at the notary that they do not want it. However they have to pay tax on their portion of the inherited share of the house within 6 months but cannot insist it be sold and could not evict us during our lifetime.

Is this information correct?

If we did make a Spanish will just for the house and use an English one for the other assets. Does the nature of a will not make this impossible, ie whichever document is signed last should be the one that stands.

Is there a way to make sure that we can leave 100% of assets to each other until we both die and only then do the assets pass on to our children?

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Julie
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Re: Spanish and English wills

Postby Julie » Thu Sep 10, 2009 2:20 pm

We made mirrored wills leaving 100% to each other and only if we died together would it then go to our children, we made one for each countrys assets, as we are european we don't have to follow Spanish law, the notary did ask if we were sure that we wanted to leave everything to each other and not the children, but he said it was ok, he was a little surprised, maybe because he doesn,t deal with a lot of Brits. You don't have to made 2 wills, but it would help a lot with the red tape if you have 2. Hope this helps
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tarotwoman
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Re: Spanish and English wills

Postby tarotwoman » Thu Sep 10, 2009 6:58 pm

Thanks Julie, That's exactly the same as we want to do. Can you just tell me is the will for your non Spanish assets an English will and if so does it have to be dated the same as the Spanish one.

Thanks again.

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Julie
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Re: Spanish and English wills

Postby Julie » Thu Sep 10, 2009 7:25 pm

Yes to the first and no to the second question, hope thats ok,
No soporto ver la casa sucia, ahora mismo me levanto y apago la luz.

tarotwoman
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Re: Spanish and English wills

Postby tarotwoman » Tue Sep 15, 2009 6:54 pm

Yes, that helps. Thanks very much.

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DavidSearl
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Re: Spanish and English wills

Postby DavidSearl » Tue Oct 06, 2009 11:33 am

FROM DAVID SEARL

FOR TAROTWOMAN

Sorry to be so long about it, but your question got lost in my shuffle.

Yes, as the other posts suggest, you can do what you want here.

Make two wills. The English will states that it disposes of all your assets in the UK or offshore. The Spanish will states that it disposes of only your assets located in Spain. The dates are not important, then.

Because you are English, Spanish law in this case applies the English rules, so you each can leave your half of the Spanish property to each other, and then on to your children.

One tip. It would be better from the point of view of inheritance tax for each of you to leave his or her half in equal parts to your two children. Thus each child inherits one quarter of the property, applies his exemption of 16,000 euros. On the death of the second parent, each child gets to apply his exemption again, thus minimising inheritance tax.

This will contains the provision of usufruct for the surviving parent over the children's half of the property, and of course the survivor continues to own his or her half.

Good Luck with it, David Searl
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