The Superior Court of Justice of Aragon has partially estimated the appeal of an heiress that challenged the liquidation of the Inheritance taxin which the payment of 38,157.04 euros was required. It considers that the administration miscalculated the domestic trousseau (personal property for usual and personal use that were in the habitual home of the deceased), by automatically applying 3% on the total value of the inheritance, without analyzing what goods they really made up. Therefore, it orders the tax, excluding the goods that do not legally correspond to said concept.
According to the judgment of March 20, 2025, after the death of the heiress presented a tax self -assessment declaring as domestic trousseau 20,110.75 euros, calculated by default as 3% of the relict flow, following article 15 of the Law on the Tax on Succession and Donations (Law 29/1987).
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The Tax Administration maintained that amount without checking and practiced a definitive liquidation for 38,157 euros. The heiress appealed before the Regional Economic-Administrative Court of Aragon (Teara), claiming that many of the inherited goods, such as money in accounts, actions or leased real estate, were not part of the domestic trousseau and should not be included in that 3%.
The Teara rejected the claim and validated the action of the administration. Therefore, the heiress took the case before the TSJ of Aragon.
They cannot be included in the domestic trousseau that were not for personal use of the deceased
The Aragon TSJ partially estimated the resource and annulled the part of the settlement of the tax that corresponds to the domestic trousseau, forcing the administration to practice a new liquidation.
The decision was based on the aforementioned article 15 of Law 29/1987 of the Inheritance Tax, which allows to assess the trousseau in 3% of the relict flow, except evidence to the contrary, but warns that this presumption is “iuris tantum”, not automatic.
The Court was supported by the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court (STS 499/2020 and others), which clarifies that they cannot be included as trial of goods such as money, shares, credit rights or leased real estate, because they are not affected by the personal use of the deceased.
In this case, having challenged the taxpayer the composition of the goods, the administration had to justify which elements really integrated the trousseau. Not doing so involved violating both article 15 of the ISD law and the principles of motivation of the administrative act, included in article 34.1 of the General Tax Law and in article 103 of the Spanish Constitution.
In the words of the TSJ, “3% cannot be applied without assessing the content of the inherited goods,” and added that “the trousseau only encompasses personal effects of the deceased.”
For all these reasons, the tax was ordered to recalculate, excluding from the trousseau that were not for domestic or family use.