We can provide you with advice on legal and taxation matters when putting together your will. Ensure you obtain advice early on in order to exploit all the options for making your ideas of how your inheritance should be dealt with a reality:
- Are certain individuals to be particularly safeguarded?
- Who is entitled to a statutory share, what does this mean and how can we influence the statutory share?
- How can the succession and the taxation burden be deliberately influenced using sensible endowments during your lifetime so you can still profit from your estate yourself?
- How can taxation benefits be attained (maximising tax exempt amounts by contributions subject to a condition subsequent, endowment in due time while alive for repeated exploitation of tax exempt amounts)?
Entrepreneurial wills are a particularly complex topic. With these it is important to ensure that the company can continue to exist even in case of inheritance and does not have to be ruined due to compensation payments to fellow heirs or those entitled to statutory shares or due to excessive inheritance tax burdens.
Securing the long-term existence of the company by means of a sound nuptial agreement and by appropriate clauses in the company contract is however just as important as an entrepreneurial will.
Another important topic is the increasing number of international inheritance cases i.e. inheritance cases with a foreign basis, either because the deceased or at least one of the heirs lives abroad or where at least a part of the estate is located abroad. In such cases checks need to be made and there is a need to consider which inheritance jurisdiction is applicable, what sorts of consequences this has (there is no entitlement to statutory share in many foreign jurisdictions for instance) and the extent to which you can use your own influence e.g. by selecting the applicable jurisdiction. Taking into account taxation aspects is equally important in this context, too. The threat of double taxation looms more frequently than one might imagine with international inheritance cases and this can have fatal consequences for finances.
Besides setting up a will, we will assist you in handling legal and taxation matters with inheritance cases here too. As sad as the death of a close person is, there is nonetheless much to be considered and done:
- Accepting or renouncing the inheritance;
- Bringing to bear liability restrictions;
- Applying for a certificate of inheritance;
- Contact with fellow heirs, entitlement to statutory shares, legatees and will executors where applicable;
- Enforcement and defence of rights to information and payment;
- Submission of inheritance tax declaration.