The National Court orders the General Administration of the State to return 8,816.65 euros corresponding to the Inheritance Tax paid by a daughter after the death of her mother. Justice considers that said tax was improperly charged by the administration, since the regulations that were applied for the liquidation discriminated against the non-resident heir, violating the doctrine of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).
Although the ruling of November 2024 is not yet final, and can be appealed, it annuls the previous decision of the Central Economic-Administrative Court (TEAC), which did not admit the claim of the affected party by concluding that the initial settlement of the tax, presented to the Office National Tax Management, was firm.
As can be seen from the ruling itself, the problem arose when the mother died in 2008. At that time the daughter paid the inheritance tax corresponding to the inheritance received based on the regulations applicable at that time. Years later in 2014 The CJEU declared that Spain had breached Article 63 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) by establishing differences in tax treatment between residents and non-residents, and this decision left an open door to claim refunds.
The court admits the claim and orders the refund of inheritance tax to the heir
With the possibility of claim The daughter asked the National Tax Management Office to rectify the tax settlement and refund the amount paid for his mother’s inheritance that had been collected improperly. To do so, he presented some previous favorable resolutions of similar situations, in this case the one made by his brother who had already received the payment back.
This claim was rejected by the Tax Office that argued that the settlement was already final, and the TEAC declared that the case did not meet the requirements to be reviewed.
This was what led the heiress to present her case to the courts requesting that the decision made by the TEAC be annulled so that her right to a tax refund would be recognized.
Finally, it has been the National Court which has agreed with him by considering that an Administration cannot rely on the fact that the liquidation is final if a right recognized by European justice is being violated.
The ruling states that “The principle of good Administration requires that, without further delay, we provide a solution to the problem raised by the plaintiff, which cannot be other than recognizing her right to the requested rectification, which must translate into the application of the income refund procedure. undue payments, the Administration being the one who must, in execution of this ruling, rectify the liquidation and order the return of the undue payment.”
It bases its decision on the 2014 CJEU ruling, which concluded that Spain discriminated against non-residents in inheritances and donationsviolating the free circulation of capital. And he emphasizes that this doctrine has been ratified by the Supreme Court on several occasions.
Point out that “If the principle of res judicata does not operate as an insurmountable limit for the application of European Union law, because this is predicated even on final judgments, it must be applied to a greater extent”. He also appeals to At no time did the administration inform the interested party about the tax processing process and that there had been “a procedure in which the law itself was called into question that protected the liquidation, in terms such that it was discriminatory…, so that he could evaluate the decision to challenge it for that reason.”
It highlights that The TEAC should have followed the European doctrine instead of clinging to the firmness of the liquidation, since “the principle of res judicata does not operate as an insurmountable limit for the application of European Union Law.”
For all this, it orders the General Administration of the State to return to the heir the requested amount of 8,816 euros, although as stated initially, the ruling is not final and can be appealed with an appeal by the administration. .