Wills - England, France, Spain

[Polremy]

We have recently bought a small apartment in the Canaries. This has finally made us decide to try and sort out a satisfactory will which will not cause problems to our children when we depart!

We live in France where we own our house. We also own a property in England which is rented out.

Our family situation is straightforward - each married only to each other - 36 years and counting. We are both just on the right side of 60 and retired. We have three grown up children, all of whom we get on well with and trust (I think!)

I have read about "tenants in common" which seems to be a good idea for avoiding inheritance tax and worked well when my father died recently. However, owning property in three different countries might complicate things. Mr. Polremy said just give one property to each child now as long as they all promise to let us have full use of them. I'm sure that is just too easy - it's bound to be not allowed. At the moment the only will we have is a W.H.Smith do-it-yourself £4.99 job. It simply leaves everything to each other which is probably no longer a good idea taxwise. We have no will at all in France. At the moment we are being pressed to make a Spanish will for the property in the Canaries.(Apparently, under Spanish law, half the apartment would go to my brother in law if i am widowed. Now, that is not what I would like to see happen) Can anyone advise our best move please? Preferably one that doesnt involve massive payments to solicitors in three different countries! We dont mind doing a bit of work ourselves but I gather that there are several pitfalls. Thanks - as always - to those helpful and knowledgeable people out there.

[Benjamin]

We've lived in all three countries (and then some) as well as owning property in two of them at the same time.

Your problem in getting an answer on this or any forum is in finding someone who has knowledge of all three countries covering tax/inheritance.

As an example, and this is guessing, I think it's quite easy to give away a property in the UK. If you then survive for seven more years the person you gave it to doesn't have to pay any inheritance tax. Of course the downside for them if they subsequently want to sell is that for capital gains tax purposes their purchase price to set off against the selling price is a big fat zero!

The second point in this illustration is how the French tax man, as you're French tax resident, might see this transaction; OK or attempted evasion of tax on worldwide assets?

You only course of action is to find an international firm of advisers who have a presence, and understand the inter reaction, between the three countries involved. Having said that, please be very very careful in chosing that firm.

Benjamin

[Polremy]

yes, it's the choosing of adviser that bothers me really. dont want to be charged an arm and a leg and then find out it still hasnt been sorted properly.

ah well. maybe someone else will have some ideas.

thanks anyway, benjamin.

[Benjamin]

I can understand if the choice of advisor is your main concern. My starting point would be to go to my solicitor in the UK (so long as you rate them) and start asking them for recomendations. They are in the "trade" if you like and should know the correct place to begin looking even if they can't specifically point you at a competent company.

Of  course if they try to muscle in and offer to act as a go between I would walk away from them.

You are better off paying one firm with a bone fide set of international credentials whose fees may appear to be high than trying to get information from several firms who all claim a bit of knowledge. It's one of those situations that you come across rarely where paying what may seem to be high fees now pays itself back many times in later life.

Maybe I'm strange but I have no difficulty paying for sound professional advice as it inveriably is the correct way to go.

Benjamin

[united]

I agree with Benjamin sound professional advice is worth the price. What I have done in the past is identify exactly what I want in the way of help and then put it into an email and send it to a number of different firms. This included the areas of advice I required and the request to know who if anyone regulated them.

You can then help to narrow down your choice to 2 or 3 who you can then ask further questions, a number will be prompted by the replies you receive.

The last time I did this I had on reply saying that a company would be available 24 hours a day for a fee of less than £1k, clearly nonesense.  Another sent me a reply stating what their fee would be and sent a whole page of what it did not include and what I would have to pay to have these services. That at least told me they had some experience and gave me a basis to ask others what their fees included.

Emails are free so they can give you an invaluable insight into how companies deal with customers.

Good luck