Most European countries have a tax that\u00a0arises when the estate of a deceased person is transferred\u00a0to his\/her heirs. The amount of tax to be paid heavily depends\u00a0on the affiliation to different heir-categories.\u00a0European countries generally levy the highest inheritance taxes of all, with EU countries in the study taking 14% tax on the inheritance of a property of US$ 3 million, nearly twice as much as the global average of 7.67%.<\/p>\n
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In\u00a0all countries, the tax level increases with a decrease in\u00a0the degree of family relationship; and the threshold increases\u00a0with higher degrees of family relationship. The\u00a0heirs are therefore grouped according to their degree of\u00a0family relationship in up to four categories. For each\u00a0category, there are different progressive tax rates and\u00a0different thresholds.<\/p>\n
For example, spouses and children\u00a0are completely exempt from\u00a0taxation in a majority of cases, whereas for heirs with no\u00a0family relationship to the deceased, the tax rate can be\u00a0up to 48 percent (Luxembourg).<\/p>\n
In the EU, some people can effectively pay inheritance tax twice or more in different countries.<\/p>\n
Why?<\/p>\n
EU Member States are not obliged to harmonize or even coordinate their policies on direct taxes (such as income taxes, property or inheritance taxes). They only have to respect the EU Treaties, which means for instance that Member States are not allowed to discriminate against EU citizens when imposing inheritance taxes. However, two or more Member States can impose their taxes in parallel.<\/p>\n
It is often unclear\u00a0which national jurisdiction is responsible for a case with\u00a0cross-border issues. If a person lives in a country where\u00a0s\/he is not a national, both jurisdictions can claim responsibility\u00a0for the case. Decisions about succession or\u00a0being an heir in one country may also not be recognized\u00a0in another country.<\/p>\n
To facilitate cases with cross-border issues, the European countries (except Denmark, UK and Ireland) agreed\u00a0on a regulation (European Parliament and European\u00a0Council 2012).<\/em><\/p>\n The main benefit of the regulation is that\u00a0only one jurisdiction will be responsible for a succession\u00a0case in the future. This will be the jurisdiction where the\u00a0deceased was a habitual resident.<\/p>\n Habitual residence\u00a0is determined by the state in which the person spent the\u00a0most time in the years preceding his\/her death and was most closely connected to. But the successor can also\u00a0state in a will that the law where s\/he is national should\u00a0apply to his\/her case. The court responsible will attest\u00a0the heirs as legal heir, and this status has to be accepted\u00a0in all other European countries (European Certificate of\u00a0Succession).<\/p>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Most European countries have a tax that\u00a0arises when the estate of a deceased person is transferred\u00a0to his\/her heirs. The amount of tax to be paid heavily depends\u00a0on the affiliation to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6304,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10475],"tags":[8587,8224],"class_list":["post-7238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-en","tag-double-taxation","tag-taxes"],"featured_image_src":{"landsacpe":["https:\/\/altax.al\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/double-taxation.jpg",400,268,false],"list":["https:\/\/altax.al\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/double-taxation.jpg",400,268,false],"medium":["https:\/\/altax.al\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/double-taxation-300x201.jpg",300,201,true],"full":["https:\/\/altax.al\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/double-taxation.jpg",400,268,false]},"yoast_head":"\n