Practice
Private clients & Spanish assets
A flat in Alicante, a house inherited from a grandmother, a Spanish company held inside a family that no longer lives here. Cross-border estates are where Spanish law is least intuitive to foreigners and where the cost of guessing is highest.
What we handle
- Cross-border succession — which country’s law governs the estate under EU Regulation 650/2012, whether a foreign will works in Spain, and what a European Certificate of Succession does and does not solve.
- Spanish property inherited by foreign heirs — from death certificate and últimas voluntades to acceptance deed, tax payment and registry entry.
- Inheritance and gift tax — the tax is state law applied through seventeen regional regimes; where the property is and where the heir lives can change the bill by an order of magnitude.
- Non-resident taxation — the annual obligations attaching to Spanish property, and the tax that falls due on sale.
- Estate disputes — forced heirship (legítima), contested wills, co-heirs who will not sell, and judicial division of an estate.
- Planning — how to hold Spanish assets now so the next generation does not inherit a problem.
Two traps worth knowing about
Deadlines. Spanish inheritance tax is due within six months of death. An extension can be applied for, but only within the first five of those months; miss it and surcharges and interest start running while the family is still gathering documents.
Forced heirship. Spanish common law reserves a fixed share of the estate for children. Choosing the law of your nationality in a will can change that — but only if the choice is made properly and in time.
If someone has died and Spanish assets are involved, the clock has already started. That is the one situation where an early call genuinely changes the cost.
How we price it
| Engagement | Scope | Fee |
|---|---|---|
| Scoping call | What has to happen, in what order, and by when | No charge |
| Succession opinion | Written analysis: applicable law, validity of the will, heirs, tax exposure by region | From €900 |
| Estate administration | Documents, acceptance deed, tax filings and registry entry for a single property | From €2,500 |
| Complex estate | Several assets, several heirs, or a foreign will requiring recognition | Quoted on scope |
| Estate dispute | Assessment and negotiation stage; proceedings quoted separately | From €1,800 |
Fees exclude VAT, taxes and third-party costs (notary, registry, sworn translation, apostille). Indicative only, and no outcome is promised.
Submit your project — or, if someone has died, write directly to hello@spain.com.es.