A little over two years ago, Oriol came to my Notary Office to ask us to draw up the wills of his aunts, with whom he had lived since he was a child and who had raised him, and who he now looked after due to his age. As his aunts had limited mobility, since they were quite old, the wills had to be signed at the testators' home, and as is usually the case, in order to record their wishes in the most precise way, I asked them questions, and what surprised me the most was that Oriol was not really their nephew.
As they explained to me, they had raised him like a son, but they had never really had any papers that would have given them custody of him, and to my further surprise, no one had asked for it, and in that capacity they had sent him to school, taken him to the doctor and fulfilled all the duties and obligations that parents usually have towards their son.
They also told me about the assets they had, which consisted of some properties and a considerable amount of money, in which the two of them appeared as owners along with Oriol.
With this information, my mind immediately went to think about the tax consequences of a possible succession, which would end up with Oriol, who could be considered a stranger, causing the inheritance to be eaten up by the treasury.
For this reason, in addition to the wills, in which both sisters, single and without descendants, named each other as heirs, foreseeing that in the absence of the last one she would inherit all of Oriol, we recommend that what in the Law of Catalonia is called a situation of mutual aid.
What is a mutual aid cohabitation situation?
This is an agreement between a group of people, not exceeding four, as long as they are not united by a marriage bond or form a stable couple with another person with whom they live, with the intention of permanence, of sharing the same home, common expenses and/or domestic work.
This figure is intended to provide a solution through private law to the care needs of the elderly, and to promote this, tax legislation has established benefits in inheritance tax, which provides that in acquisitions due to death between members of a mutual aid cohabitation relationship, the purchasers are assimilated to the rest of the descendants of group II defined in article 2, for the purposes of applying the reductions for kinship and habitual residence and the multiplier coefficient.
Let's go back to the case of Oriol, since his aunts both died, with little difference between them, at the end of 2014, and he has been awarded the assets that they left upon their death.
The concrete example
Knowing that law, in the abstract, is very arid, we are going to transfer all this to the case of Oriol, making a comparison of what would have happened if there had not been a situation of mutual aid, with what really happened.
The amount of Oriol's inheritance amounted to five hundred and forty-three thousand thirty-five euros and eighty-two cents (€ 543,035.82).
As a member of a mutual aid cohabitation situation, he was entitled to apply a reduction of 50,000 euros and also the right to 95% of the value of the habitual residence, a total of 116,500 euros, which made a taxable base of 444,886.89 euros, and the amount that he had to pay was the not inconsiderable figure of 67,772.85 euros.
If there had not been the situation of mutual aid, the cost of the inheritance would have been 191,465.70 euros. That is, as a result of proper advice, and all within the most absolute legality, The discount obtained by Oriol was 123,692.85 euros.
Finally, if Oriol had been the son, the tax cost would have been 4,125.612 euros, since in this case, in addition to the most generous reductions available, the children are entitled to a tax rebate.
Oriol is happy, grateful, and in the end he confessed to me that when the issue of establishing the cohabitation situation of mutual help was raised, the only thing he thought was that the Notary wanted to give him one more document.
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