Inheritance Law in Greece

When someone passes away, many issues are raised concerning his belongings (property, money, assets) and the living relatives who live abroad are obliged to undertake all the necessary legal proceedures. As a result, the need of legal help and clarification of the distribution of the assets and other rights acquired during the lifetime of the deceased, among the heirs, arises inevitably. The specific provisions which regulate the relevant areas (successions, inheritance portion distribution, deadlines, procedures for acceptance or renouncement of inheritance) are directed by the legal inheritance regulations of the Greek national law. We are here to solve all your problems that arise from being the relative of the deceased concerning the procedures to be followed and to undertake these procedures for you.

Greek inheritance law is regulated by the Greek Civil Code, articles 1710 – 2035. A person can decide what will happen to his property after his death: He has three options: a. he can leave a will handwritten by him, b. he can leave a will written before a notary under the presence of three witnesses, c. leave a secret will, which means that the testator hands the will to the notary and he is obliged to seal and keep it (without knowing its content) until the testator’s death.

The first thing to do when someone dies is to determinate the assets and make a research for existing wills of the deceased. If there is a will the notary or any person who has access to a deceased person’s handwritten will, is obliged to notify the court about the existence of the will and submit the original for publication to the Magistrates Court responsible for the area in which the notary public resides, so that every person having an interest in its content can have access to it. Take into consideration that if there are more than one wills, all of them must be published.

If the deceased has not left a will of any kind, or his will is void for any reason or settles only a part of its property, the deceased is considered to be in intestacy and its succession is regulated by provisions of the law. The legal heirs are categorized by law in six categories, called “classes”, as following:

• The first class includes the spouse, children and grandchildren of the deceased. The latter are called to the inheritance only if the former have predeceased.
• The second class includes the parents and brothers or sisters of the deceased. If they have predeceased, then their children or grandchildren are called as heirs.
• The third class includes the grandparents and from their descendants the children and the grandchildren.
• The fourth class includes the great grandparents of the deceased.
• The fifth class includes solely the spouse. It should be noted that the spouse heirs together with the other relatives and all previous classes. In the first class the spouse’s share is ¼ whereas in the second, third and fourth class is ½ of the property. The spouse is also entitled to acquire any mobile property of the deceased, which was used for their common living (furniture, car etc)
• If the deceased did not have a spouse or another relative of the previous classes at the time of death, then the property goes to the Greek State.

The next thing the heir must decide is if he will accept or renounce the inheritance. The renouncement must be made within four (4) months after the exact date of death, otherwise the renouncement is void, while this deadline is one (1) year if the heir lives abroad. If the heir decides to accept the inheritance, within six (6) months after the exact date of death (if there is no will) or within six (6) months after the exact date of the publication of the will (if there is such) must submit the tax declaration, while this deadline is one (1) year if the heir lives abroad. Otherwise, a fine will be imposed.

In order to renounce the inheritance, the heir must declare it to the Secretary of the Magistrates Court responsible for the area in which the deceased had his residence.

In order to accept the inheritance, the heir must submit the tax declaration, pay the tax, sign the acceptance of inheritance papers and submit them to the Land Registry Office responsible for the area of the property.

Inheritance tax

The beneficiaries of the inherited property are classified into three (3) categories

• The first category consists of the spouse of the deceased, the descendants of the first degree, the descendants by blood of the second degree, the ascendants by blood of the first degree. As far as adopted descendants are concerned, the law stipulates that they are to be treated as natural children.
• The second category includes descendants of the third and subsequent degrees, ascendants of the second and subsequent degrees, voluntarily or judicially recognized children against the ascendants of the father who acknowledged them, descendants of the child that was voluntarily or judicially recognized against the father who recognized the former against the former’s ascendants, the siblings, the collateral blood relatives of the third degree, the stepfathers and stepmothers, children from the previous marriage of the spouse, the children by marriage (groom, bride) and the ascendants by marriage (father-in-law, mother-in-law).
• The third category consists of any other person, except those of the first two categories and any other third person.

Tax scale

First category:

Tax scale in €	Scale factor (%)	Tax scale €	Taxable property in €	Tax which equals to €
150.000	-	-	150.000	-
150.000	1	1.500	300.000	1.500
300.000	5	15.000	600.000	16.500
Excess	10

Second category:

Tax scale in €	Scale factor (%)	Tax scale €	Taxable property in €	Tax which equals to €
30.000	-	-	30.000	-
70.000	5	3.500	100.000	2.500
200.000	10	20.000	300.000	23.500
Excess	20

Third category:

Tax scale in €	Scale factor (%)	Tax scale €	Taxable property in €	Tax which equals to €
6.000	-	-	60.000	-
66.000	20	13.200	72.000	13.200
195.000	30	58.200	267.000	71.700
Excess	40

In relation to the taxation of real estate property, the objective value is taken into account, which results from the Public Financial Services of Greece on the basis of certain objective evaluative information, such as the area in which the real estate is situated, its size, its age etc.

Case studies