01.What has changed and since when
Law 11/2026 of 9 July on fiscal, financial, administrative and public-sector measures was published in the “Diario Oficial de la Generalitat de Cataluña”, Catalonia's official gazette, on 13 July 2026 and came into force the following day. Among its many measures, its repealing provision, in paragraph 2, letter r, repeals paragraph 4 of article 632-1 of the sixth book of the “Código tributario de Cataluña”, the Catalan Tax Code, approved by Legislative Decree 1/2024 of 12 March.
It is a removal of a few lines with substantive consequences. That paragraph treated as gratuitous acquisitions inter vivos, for the purposes of the reductions, gifts mortis causa in which immediate delivery of the assets is agreed. It applied to them the reductions for gifts and denied them those for inheritances. The rest of their treatment as gifts, including the reduced rate scale, derived from the administrative criterion in Resolution 6/2010. Once the paragraph disappeared, the Generalitat's Directorate-General for Taxation and Gaming, the “Dirección General de Tributos y Juego”, issued on that same day, 14 July 2026, its Resolution 3/2026, which declares that these gifts are taxed under the rules for acquisitions upon death and withdraws the criterion that the Catalan tax authorities had upheld since 2010.
Ordinary gifts inter vivos are not affected by this change. They continue to be taxed as before, with their reduced rate scale for the spouse, descendants and ascendants. The change affects only one specific institution of Catalan civil law, the gift mortis causa with immediate delivery.
02.The gift mortis causa in the Catalan Civil Code
Article 432-1 of the fourth book of the “Código civil de Cataluña”, the Catalan Civil Code, defines it as follows:
“1. Gifts mortis causa are dispositions of assets which the donor, in contemplation of his or her death, makes in the form of a gift accepted by the donee in his or her lifetime, without the donor being personally bound by the gift. 2. Gifts made subject to the condition precedent that the donee survives the donor have the character of gifts mortis causa and are subject to their legal regime, without prejudice to the provisions on succession agreements. 3. The transfer of ownership of the thing given is conditional on the gift becoming definitively final, unless the intention of the parties is an immediate transfer, with or without a reservation of usufruct by the donor, subject to the condition subsequent of revocation or predecease of the donee.”
The provision contains two forms. In the ordinary form, the donee acquires nothing until the donor dies and the gift becomes final. In the one of interest here, the parties agree that ownership is transferred immediately, with or without a reservation of usufruct for the donor, but subject to a condition subsequent. If the donor revokes the gift or the donee dies before the donor, the transfer is rendered ineffective. This is what is known as a gift mortis causa with immediate delivery.
Its succession-law nature follows from the Code itself. The gift is made in contemplation of the donor's death, does not bind the donor personally, because he or she may revoke it, and is governed by the rules on legacies in the matters listed in article 432-2, and by those on gifts only to the extent that its special nature permits. On the donor's death, the donee takes the assets as his or her own regardless of whether the heir accepts the estate, under article 432-4. And the gift is rendered ineffective, among other cases, if the donor expressly revokes it in a public deed, will or codicil, if he or she disposes of or bequeaths the assets or if the donee dies before the donor, as listed in article 432-5.
In practice, the institution makes it possible to settle in one's lifetime the destination of a specific asset, normally a property, in favour of a child or another person, without losing the ability to revoke it and, if the usufruct is reserved, retaining its use. That is why it has been a common estate-planning instrument in Catalonia.
03.How it was taxed until now
Paragraph 4 of article 632-1 of the sixth book of the Tax Code provided:
“The reductions established in this section are applicable to the gifts mortis causa regulated by chapter II of title III of Law 10/2008 of 10 July on the fourth book of the Civil Code of Catalonia, relating to succession, in which the immediate transfer of ownership of the thing given is agreed subject to a condition subsequent of revocation or predecease of the donee. The reductions established in section I of chapter I cannot be applied to the aforementioned gifts mortis causa, which are treated for that purpose as gratuitous acquisitions inter vivos.”
The rule derived from article 37.4 of Law 19/2010 of 7 June regulating inheritance and gift tax, and the Catalan tax authorities had supplemented it with their Resolution 6/2010 of 7 June. That resolution, relying on three 2009 judgments of the “Tribunal Superior de Justicia de Cataluña”, the High Court of Justice of Catalonia, distinguished between the ordinary gift mortis causa, which it treated as an acquisition by succession, and the gift with immediate delivery, which it treated as a gratuitous acquisition inter vivos because the donee receives powers over the asset during the donor's lifetime.
The consequence was that these gifts could not apply the kinship reduction or the other reductions for inheritances. They could, on the other hand, apply the reductions specific to gifts, such as the one for gifts of a family business or of quotas (“participaciones”), by express mandate of paragraph 4 itself, and the reduced rate scale for gifts to the spouse, descendants and ascendants.
The problem is that the State tax authorities held the opposite view. The Directorate-General for Taxation of the Spanish Ministry of Finance, the “Dirección General de Tributos”, has held in numerous binding rulings, between 2024 and 2026, that the gift mortis causa regulated in the Catalan Civil Code is a title of succession and is taxed under the inheritance limb of the tax, also when the assets are delivered during the donor's lifetime. It does so on the basis of article 3.1.a of Law 29/1987 of 18 December on inheritance and gift tax, which includes in the taxable event the acquisition of assets “by inheritance, legacy or any other title of succession”, and of article 11 of its Regulations, which expressly mentions the gift mortis causa among those titles. The same transaction thus received two different classifications depending on which authority looked at it, with the uncertainty this entails for the taxpayer.
04.What Law 11/2026 and Resolution 3/2026 do
Law 11/2026 merely removes paragraph 4 of article 632-1. It does not say expressly how these gifts are to be taxed from now on. That is stated by Resolution 3/2026, which concludes that “the gift mortis causa, regardless of the time at which the donated assets are transferred, is an institution of succession law which takes effect on the death of the donor” and that this classification determines the application of the rules for acquisitions upon death “as regards the taxable event, the taxable base, the reductions, the tax payable, accrual and the formal obligations” (the resolution is drafted in Catalan and the translation is ours).
The resolution adds three clarifications. The first, that the gift with immediate delivery is aggregated with the donor's estate, under article 30.2 of Law 29/1987, if no more than four years have elapsed between the gift and the death. The second, that the condition subsequent of revocation or predecease is not taxed in itself, because it is a defining element of the contract, and that, if it is fulfilled, the donee or his or her heirs may claim a refund of the tax paid. The third, that from its date Resolution 6/2010 and the rulings of the Directorate-General that conflict with the new criterion cease to have effect.
In our view, the solution is correct and puts an end to an asymmetry that was difficult to sustain. The Catalan Civil Code regulates the gift mortis causa within the book on succession and subjects it largely to the regime of legacies. The fact that delivery of the assets is brought forward does not change its cause, which remains the death of the donor, or its revocable nature. Treating it as a gift inter vivos solely in order to deny it the succession reductions had no basis in its civil-law nature and placed it in contradiction with the criterion of the State, which is the one that regulates the taxable event of the tax.
05.What applying the inheritance rules entails
The most visible effect is that the donee can apply the kinship reduction in article 631-2 of the Tax Code, which in acquisitions upon death is 100.000 euros for the spouse and for each son or daughter, 50.000 euros for the other descendants and 30.000 euros for ascendants, with higher amounts for descendants under twenty-one. The donee can also apply the rebate on the tax payable in article 633-4, which is 99 % for the spouse and decreases according to the amount for the other taxpayers in groups I and II. For the latter, the rebate is incompatible with the application of other reductions, except the one for the deceased's principal residence.
It would be a mistake, however, to conclude that the new regime is always more favourable. Being taxed as an inheritance, the gift no longer applies the reduced rate scale for gifts in article 633-2, which ranges from 5 % to 9 % for the spouse, descendants and ascendants, and moves to the general rate scale in article 633-1, which ranges from 7 % to 32 %. The result depends on the amount and on the degree of kinship.
An example illustrates this. Suppose a gift mortis causa with immediate delivery of a property worth 300.000 euros to a child aged twenty-one or over, with no significant pre-existing wealth and no other reductions. Under the previous regime, with no kinship reduction and with the reduced rate scale, applicable because the gift is recorded in a public deed, the tax payable was 17.000 euros. Under the new one, the reduction of 100.000 euros leaves a base of 200.000 euros, the general rate scale gives a gross tax liability of 23.000 euros and the average rebate of 55 % corresponding to a taxable base of 300.000 euros reduces it to 10.350 euros. The new regime is clearly more favourable.
If the property is worth 1.000.000 euros, the comparison is reversed. Under the previous regime, the reduced rate scale gave a tax payable of 74.000 euros. Under the new one, the base of 900.000 euros after the reduction gives a gross tax liability of 185.000 euros, and the average rebate of 44,25 % corresponding to a taxable base of 1.000.000 euros brings it down to 103.137,50 euros. The donee pays around 40 % more than before.
In the case of the spouse, the 99 % rebate means that the new regime is almost always much more favourable. In group III, that of second- and third-degree collateral relatives and ascendants and descendants by marriage, which had no reduced rate scale and still has no rebate, the difference is the kinship reduction of 8.000 euros. For unrelated persons and more distant collateral relatives, who have no kinship reduction, the change barely alters the tax payable, save for the other reductions that may apply under each limb of the tax.
The succession classification also changes the autonomous community whose legislation applies. In acquisitions upon death, the legislation of the community in which the deceased, here the donor, resided for the greatest number of days in the five years prior to accrual governs, and not that of the place where the property is located, as happens in gifts of immovable property. The State Directorate-General for Taxation applied it in this way in its ruling V1308-26 of 28 May 2026. That is why Resolution 3/2026 and the Catalan legislation only apply when the donor resides in Catalonia.
06.Accrual, aggregation and revocation
Although it is treated as an inheritance, the tax does not wait for the death of the donor. Article 24.1 of Law 29/1987 provides that, “in acquisitions occurring during the lifetime of the deceased as a result of succession contracts and agreements, the tax shall accrue on the day on which the said agreement arises or is entered into”, and the State Directorate-General for Taxation applies it to the gift with immediate delivery. The tax therefore accrues on the day on which the gift is executed.
The aggregation under article 30.2 of Law 29/1987 has an effect worth bearing in mind, and one that already existed when these gifts were treated as gifts inter vivos. If the donor dies within the four years following the gift, the gift is aggregated with what the donee receives from the estate. The gift is not assessed again, but the average rate that would result from adding together the two net taxable bases is applied to the inheritance, which may raise its rate of tax. A gift intended to be taxed on its own may end up raising the tax cost of the inheritance.
The creation of the condition subsequent, lastly, is not taxed in itself. If the donor revokes the gift or the donee dies before the donor, the condition is fulfilled, and the donee or his or her heirs may apply for any refund due of the tax paid, under article 8 of the Regulations of the tax.
07.The donor and income tax
The succession classification also has a favourable effect for the donor. Article 33.3.b of Law 35/2006 of 28 November on personal income tax provides that there is no capital gain or loss on “transfers for no consideration upon the death of the taxpayer”. The State Directorate-General for Taxation applies this rule to the Catalan gift mortis causa with immediate delivery, among others in its ruling V1308-26, so that the donor is not taxed on the capital gain on the donated asset, unlike what happens in an ordinary gift inter vivos. This treatment was already that of the State before the reform, the State being the one that regulates income tax. Inheritance tax now, following Law 11/2026 and Resolution 3/2026, classifies the transaction in the same way.
But the advantage has a limit. If the donee sells the assets before five years have passed since the gift, or before the death of the donor if that occurs earlier, article 36 of the Income Tax Law requires the donee to take as the acquisition value and date those of the donor, where they are lower, so that the donee ends up paying the accumulated capital gain.
08.What remains open
The reform leaves some questions that the resolution does not expressly resolve.
The first is that of gifts executed before 14 July 2026. Since the tax accrued when the deed was executed, we consider that they are governed by the rule then in force, paragraph 4 of article 632-1, even if the donor dies afterwards. Resolution 3/2026 withdraws the previous criterion from its date, but does not say that it applies to events that have already accrued, and the removal of paragraph 4 has no retroactive effect. There is, nonetheless, a different reading. Paragraph 4 only excluded the reductions for inheritances, whereas the rest of the treatment as a gift derived from Resolution 6/2010, now without effect. For self-assessment returns for which the limitation period has not yet expired, it may be worth considering whether the succession classification allowed the rebate on the tax payable to be applied, which is not a reduction.
The second is that of the inheritance reductions designed for death, such as the one for the deceased's principal residence or the one for the family business. Their requirements are normally measured at the date of death and carry holding rules that run from it. Applying them to an acquisition that accrued during the lifetime of the donor, who may live for many years afterwards, raises doubts that the tax authorities will have to resolve case by case. The doubt is not theoretical. The State Directorate-General for Taxation, in its ruling V1308-26, which Resolution 3/2026 cites among the rulings to the same effect, refused the State family-business reduction for a gift of this kind because the donor was still alive. And, with the repeal of paragraph 4, the reduction for gifts of a family business can no longer be applied either. Anyone who was thinking of transferring a business or quotas in this way should review the transaction before executing it.
The third is that of the relationship between several gifts mortis causa from the same donor to the same donee, and between these and the estate. If they are all titles of succession, the question arises whether the kinship reduction applies only once or to each acquisition. Between several gifts of this kind, article 30.1 of Law 29/1987 aggregates those made between the same persons within a period of three years, and article 30.2 aggregates them with the estate if no more than four years have elapsed. But both rules operate to determine the tax payable, so they do not resolve whether the kinship reduction applies once or to each acquisition, and it is advisable to wait for the Catalan tax authorities to take a position.
Nor does the resolution specify the deadline or the form for the self-assessment return. It refers to the formal obligations for acquisitions upon death, whose six-month deadline runs from the death, which here has not occurred. Until the tax authorities clarify the matter, the prudent course is to file it within the month following the deed, the deadline for gifts.
09.What to do now
For those who were thinking of settling in their lifetime the destination of a property or other assets, the gift mortis causa with immediate delivery is once again an instrument worth considering in Catalonia, especially between spouses and for moderate amounts in favour of children. But the calculation is no longer what it was. The tax cost must be compared with that of an ordinary gift inter vivos and with that of leaving the assets on death, taking into account the value of the asset, the degree of kinship, the donee's wealth, the age and life expectancy of the donor and the aggregation with the future estate.
And for those who have already executed a gift of this kind, it is advisable to review when the tax accrued and under which rule it was assessed, because both the taxation of the gift and that of any estate that may be opened in the following four years depend on it.
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