Hello,
I have a hypothetical question regarding Polish inheritance law and pratice.
Obviously this would require consulting a lawyer specialized in estate law however I just wanted to see if anyone can confirm my reasoning here.
Here is the hypothetical scenario:
If a person transfers real estate property ownership to one of their children before their death (legally, as a gift).
Is that gifted land then part of the estate when that person dies ?
It would seems reasonable to include this land in the estate, otherwise that gift would be a way to make some children heirless by gifting things before death.
Would a person need to sue in court to include the land value in the estate calculation?
Thank you for any replies and sorry if this topic is not allowed.
Edit: With the help of all kind people here, I now understand that there is a way for a child to claim a (significant) part of the potential inheritance that was gifted away before death.
This link deals with this exact situation and the procedure seems fairly clear:
https://codozasady.pl/en/p/forced-share-also-valid-for-statutory-succession
Polish inheritance rules with regards to property that was transferred before death
byu/GlobalHawkSWE inpoland
Posted by GlobalHawkSWE
4 Comments
By the way …
I assume that gifting tax was paid when the property was transferred while the donor and received where both still alive.
This is not a question of taxation of either the original gift or the estate taxes.
This is a question about whether a parent can gift all assets to only one child before death, and then the other children end up with no or minimal inheritance after death.
> Is that gifted land then part of the estate when that person dies ?
Unless the deceased included a very specific clause about exempting it from their estate, since the recipient is one of the legal heirs it is considered part of it.
> I assume that gifting tax was paid when the property was transferred while the donor and received where both still alive.
Gifts to spouse, parents or children are tax-exempt **if** they have been reported to the revenue service (UrzÄ…d Skarbowy) within six months.
If you give something to one of your kids before you die then it becomes their property and cannot be inherited by the other kids.
Actually, this seems to be the only way for inheritance to go 100% your way since very often families overturn testaments in court. So don’t expect the testament to be honoured.
In my family we have a saying that “if you want to get it done, get it done alive”. We had 2 court cases which tore apart families fighting for inheritance. The only cases with “no fighting” were when assets where split while the person was alive, e.g. my grandparents gave their house to my uncle (they lived in it till they died), and their savings to my mom so she could buy a flat. For themselves, they left only a small amount of cash to live on.
>otherwise that gift would be a way to make some children heirless by gifting things before death.
Yes.
A person can decide whom to give their stuff. Sounds like a basic human right. I’m not sure whether this is controversial view or not. If your parents or grandparents don’t want you inheriting stuff from them I can’t see why anyone would feel entitled to override their will.
If one of my children became a serial murderer and rapist you can be sure as hell I’m not gonna give them anything. And they won’t be able to do anything about it.
People in the replies are talking about “zachówek”. This doesn’t apply in many cases, for example when a person is explicitly disowned in a testament.
Also, the whole problem is a bit weird. You don’t need to gift anything to anyone prior to your death. You can just write in your testament that you don’t wish to give anything to a certain child and they can’t do shit about it.