In Catalonia, can you leave everything to your partner if you have children?

Question

José Manuel Alburquerque · Accepted Answer

Yes. In Catalonia, the spouse or partner can be appointed sole heir even if there are children. The children keep only their forced share (“legítima”), a quarter of the value of the estate between them all. It does not make them heirs. It entitles them to be paid that value by the partner. If the children are also the partner's, the limitation period for claiming it does not run while the partner is alive. As regards tax, the partner pays very little if they are married or in a “pareja estable”, the Catalan stable partnership. How it is done In a will made before a notary, the spouse or partner is appointed heir. It is common to name the children as substitute heirs, so that they inherit if the partner dies first. The children are left their forced share with the formula “lo que por legítima les corresponda” (whatever is due to them as their forced share). Until they claim it, the partner has everything at his or her disposal. The will can state that the forced share does not bear interest. If it does not, the forced share bears interest from the death, except while the child lives with the partner and is dependent on him or her. This applies if the estate is governed by Catalan law. Under the Spanish Civil Code (“Código Civil”), you cannot leave everything to your partner, because the children are entitled to two thirds of the estate. What the children can do Claim their forced share from the partner. The partner chooses whether to pay it in money or with assets from the estate. If they are the couple's children, the ten-year limitation period does not run while their father or mother is alive. But they lose it if they have not claimed it within thirty years of the death. If they are from a previous relationship, they have ten years from the death. To calculate the forced share, what the deceased gave away in the last ten years of his or her life is added to the estate, including what he or she gave to the partner. The will can leave them more than the forced share, but with the usufruct —the right to use the assets and receive the income from them for life— going to the partner. Each child then chooses whether to accept it on those terms or to take only his or her forced share, free of encumbrances. Other arrangements and taxes Leaving the partner the usufruct of the whole estate and the children the ownership. If they are married or stable partners, the partner gets a 99 % tax credit on the “impuesto de sucesiones”, the Spanish inheritance tax. They are stable partners if they live together for more than two consecutive years, if they have a child in common while living together or if they formalise the relationship in a deed before a notary. If they are not, the partner pays tax as an unrelated person, at double the amount produced by the tax scale and with no kinship allowance.