IP: Effects of acceptance or repudiation of an inheritance

The DGT points out that when a person accepts an inheritance and becomes an heir, he must declare in his self-liquidation the inherited assets in all the years in which the IP has accrued, since the death of the deceased. When you repudiate the inheritance, you must not include the assets corresponding to the hereditary portion repudiated, because at no time did they enter your estate.

The client’s father died 17 years ago without making a will. The children of the deceased are the first legal heirs in the hereditary succession. In its day, the ISD was not liquidated and, until now, inheritance has not been accepted. Due to the debts of the IBI in the name of the father, some of the brothers intend to repudiate the right to inherit, in a pure, simple and free way.

The General Directorate considers that the taxable event of the IP consists of the ownership by the taxpayer, at the time of the accrual of the Tax, of a net equity. Regarding ownership, the rules on legal ownership applicable in each case must be followed, including those related to the regulatory provisions of the economic regime of marriage and to the civil legislation applicable in each case to the patrimonial relations between the members of the family. family.

In the case analyzed (acceptance and repudiation of inheritance), the main precept in relation to the rules of legal ownership, is that by virtue of which it is established that the effects of acceptance and repudiation always take place at the time of death. of the causer.

According to this precept, when the call to succeed accepts the inheritance and becomes an heir, its hereditary acquisition is considered produced, without interruption, at the time of the death of the deceased. Consequently, it is the heir who must declare, in his self-liquidation of the IP, the inherited assets (whether they come from the repudiation or not) in all the years in which the Tax has been accrued, since the death of the deceased.

On the other hand, when it repudiates the inheritance, it must not include the assets corresponding to the hereditary portion repudiated, because at no time did they enter their patrimony, but they entered directly into the patrimony of the beneficiary of the repudiation with effects from the death of the deceased. succession.

Consultation DGT V229 / 2019 of February 4, 2019. EDD 2019/12700