The Superior Court of Justice of Castilla-La Mancha has confirmed that a niece must pay 369,583.92 euros in Inheritance Tax, after inheriting from her aunt and signing an agreement to renounce the assets of her husband in order to avoid a lawsuit with her cousin, who had been disinherited. The Administration understood that this waiver did not prevent taxation on all the assets, since the aunt had tacitly accepted the inheritance of her husband. The court concludes that private agreements between heirs do not alter the tax obligation, and the niece has to pay inheritance tax on all assets.
According to the ruling of September 17, 2025, when the uncle died in 1987, he designated his wife as the sole heir. Although this will was formalized in 1991, the liquidation of his inheritance was never formalized. Years later, in 2015, the woman died, leaving her niece as universal heir, disinheriting his daughter.
You may be interested
Dominga, retired, receives a trap inheritance of 200,000 euros: the Treasury forces her to pay for money that her nephew withdrew from the bank before dying
Laura Lobo, expert family lawyer: “Even if you are married in community, there are assets that only belong to you”
Both, the niece and daughter of the deceased, reached an agreement to divide the inheritance and avoid a trial. They signed a deed of acceptance and allocation of inheritance in which the niece agreed not to claim anything from the uncle’s inheritance or the community property, and the daughter, in exchange, accepted the disinheritance. Based on this agreement, the niece presented a partial self-assessment of the Inheritance tax, declaring only the private assets of his aunt.
The Treasury reviewed the liquidation and demanded tax on all assets, including those of the husband
The autonomous Administration initiated a procedure to verify the same and issued a complementary settlement of 369,583.92 euros, understanding that the aunt had tacitly accepted her husband’s inheritance, which implied that all the assets inherited from both were part of the assets transmitted to the niece. This action was protected by article 999.3 of the Civil Code, which establishes tacit acceptance when the heir carries out acts that imply acting as such, such as managing, disposing or using the deceased’s assets.
Justice considers that private agreements do not alter the tax obligation
The Superior Court of Justice of Castilla-La Mancha endorsed the liquidation carried out by the Tax Administration, considering that the aunt tacitly accepted her husband’s inheritance, having enjoyed and disposed of the assets for almost three decades, without promoting any formal partition. Therefore, all these assets became part of his estate and were transmitted to his niece at the time of his death.
In this sense, the court recalled that, in accordance with article 999.3 of the Civil Code, the tacit acceptance of an inheritance occurs when the heir performs acts that he can only carry out in his capacity, such as using, selling or managing the inherited assets. Added to this is the provisions of article 1000, which presumes acceptance when the inheritance is compromised, donated or transferred. Both circumstances occurred in this case, since the aunt acted for years as owner of the husband’s assets, and her heir signed a partial transfer agreement with the disinherited daughter.
Furthermore, the court stressed that the obligation to pay taxes cannot be modified by agreements between individuals, so, even if the niece signed an agreement to renounce the uncle’s assets, that does not mean that she does not have to pay taxes on them. It is expressly prohibited by article 16 of the Inheritance and Donation Tax Regulations, and confirmed by article 5 of the law itself, which establishes that the taxpayer of the tax is the one who acquires assets or rights by inheritance, without part of the transferred assets being able to be excluded.
For all this, the niece will have to pay 369,583.92 euros in inheritance tax for all the assets in her aunt’s inheritance.