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Legal notes in plain words — property, inheritance, residency and daily life in the Canary Islands, explained for international readers.
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Dying without a will in Spain: who inherits, what the surviving spouse receives and how a notary declares the heirs
The bank freezes the account and asks for a declaration of heirs. Without a will, the law of the country where the deceased lived decides who inherits; in the Canary Islands that is the Civil Code: children first, then parents, then the spouse, who otherwise receives a usufruct. This guide follows the order of heirs, the spouse's share, the notarial act and its twenty working days, the three certificates, the papers that come from abroad and the six-month tax clock.
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Giving a home or money to your children in the Canaries: the 99.9 % gift-tax rebate, the income tax it does not cancel, and when waiting to inherit costs less
A couple in Adeje, a flat in Los Cristianos worth €320,000, a daughter in Manchester: give it now or let her inherit? Read in the Canary tax code and the state laws: the 99.9 % rebate for groups I and II only and only by public deed, the parents' income tax on the gain (€34,100 in the example) that death would erase, the municipal plusvalía, which office and deadline for a non-resident child, the usufruct route, the nephew who should always wait, and the Civil Code's clawback.
Renouncing an inheritance in Spain: why fifty-five thousand people a year say no, and how to do it right
More than 55,000 inheritances a year are refused in Spain, and the reason is rarely the tax. What the Civil Code lets you do — accept, accept with the benefit of inventory, or renounce — what the notarial deed must be, the clocks that run (nine days, thirty days, six months, four years), the acts that already count as an acceptance, who inherits when you say no, and what a renunciation never takes from you: the life insurance, the survivor's pension, your own half of the home.
The Spanish will of a foreign resident: the choice of law and the European Certificate of Succession
A resident of Tenerife or Fuerteventura dies under Spanish succession law unless a will chooses the law of their nationality — one sentence that decides whether the children take two thirds or the spouse takes everything. How the choice works, the renvoi trap for owners who live abroad, what a Spanish will must say to coexist with the one at home, and the European Certificate of Succession that lets an heir named in Adeje open an account in Munich.
Inheritance in the Canaries: family pays (almost) nothing — if the paperwork is right
The 99.9% rebate makes most family inheritances near tax-free in the islands. The catch: deadlines, valuations and getting the filing right.