Oops! Accidentally revoking your Spanish will …

Raymundo Larraín Nesbitt, August, 1. 2019

By Raymundo Larraín Nesbitt
Director of Larraín Nesbitt Lawyers
1^st of August 2019

It is customary that when a solicitor drafts a will in the United Kingdom they add in a provision along the lines of “this new will revokes any other prior wills.”

This little line automatically revokes any prior Spanish will making it null and void. The legal implication of this is that to distribute the Spanish estate, as there is no longer a valid Spanish will, the family is now stupidly forced to go through a Grant of Probate in the UK; which normally exceeds one year, attracting in its wake penalties and delay interests from the tax office in Spain. All of which could have been easily avoided…

So, when you happen to make a new will in your home country, or elsewhere, please ensure your solicitor or lawyer adds in a provision safeguarding the validity of any previous existing wills made in Spain.

This little word of advice will save your family at a time of bereavement considerable aggravation, stress, money, hassle, extra fees and disbursements, tax penalties on submitting taxes late, delay interests, sworn translations, additional non-required Apostille seals etc

We all have our 'blond' moments, from time to time; just try and avoid this 'oops'.

You are welcome.

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Rutger Oelsen Hauer (1944 - 2019). Ducth actor, writer and environmentalist. Likely the best Dutch actor ever, he was certainly one of the top in the world. With such 80's classics under his belt as Blade Runner and Ladyhawke, he earned his place. He sadly past away on the 19th July 2019 in Netherlands.

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Larraín Nesbitt Lawyers is a law firm specialized in inheritance, conveyancing, taxation and litigation. We will be very pleased to discuss your matter with you. You can contact us by e-mail at info@larrainnesbitt.com, by telephone on (+34) 952 19 22 88 or by completing our contact form.

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Inheritance-related articles

Non-Residents: Six Advantages of Making a Will in Spain – 8th August 2012
Spanish Wills and Probate Law in Light of European Regulation 650/2012 – 8th January 2015
Changes to Spain’s Inheritance and Gift Tax Law – 21st February 2015
Dispelling Spanish Inheritance Tax Myths – 8th August 2015
Spanish Inheritance Tax for Non-Residents (Part I) – 21st February 2016
Spanish Inheritance Tax for Non-Residents (Part II) – 8th March 2016
Non-Resident: Why you need to make a Spanish will – 24th June 2017
Andalusia to slash Inheritance tax for inheritances under 1 million euros – 21st September 2017
Spanish Inheritance Tax Assessment Report (SITAR) – 8th October 2017
7 Advantages of Making a Spanish will – 3^rd January 2018
Seven Advantages of making a Spanish will – 8^th May 2018
Old Spanish wills made by (resident) British nationals are being declared void – 8^th May 2018
Andalusia to abolish inheritance tax in 2019 – 29^th January 2019
Andalusia, now a tier 1 region for low taxation – 3rd July 2019
How to mitigate your inheritance tax bill in Spain – 8th July 2019
Oops! Accidentally revoking your Spanish will – 1^st August 2019
Brexit and Inheritance & Gift tax in Andalusia – 8th August 2019
Inheritance tax in Spain: regional tax reliefs to benefit ALL non-residents in the future (even outwith EU/EEA) – 29^th July 2019

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