What inheritance tax?

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What inheritance tax? Acquiring an inheritance is associated with benefits, but also obligations towards the state. First of all, the acquisition of an inheritance causes the obligation to report this fact to the Tax Office. The form of acquiring the inheritance and its amount does not matter. Only the amount of tax that has to be paid is variable. What are the differences in these amounts and who does not have to pay tax at all?

General rules

Payment of inheritance tax cannot be avoided. It is a civic duty to the state. Everyone has to pay it, but in a different amount. However, there are exceptions to this rule where no tax is paid at all. How can this be done? The tax is payable upon notification of the inheritance acquisition, and its amount depends on the tax-free amount. If it exceeds it, there is no possibility of avoiding the tax. The amount of the obligation depends on several things.

First, the value of the decline. We are talking not only about things with a specific value (material things), but also about property rights (intangible), and even the value of the due inheritance share. The amount of tax is also different in the case of the degree of kinship between the family and the testator. In the case of the immediate family it is not paid at all.The donations made by the testator during his lifetime are also important. The highest form of returning the tax to the state for the acquisition of inheritance may even reach 20%.

Who doesn’t pay tax?

Inheritance law allows non-payment of tax in the case of tax group one. This group is made up of the spouse, descendants (children, grandchildren), ascendants (parents, grandparents), stepson, stepdaughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, siblings, stepfather, stepmother and in-laws, respectively. In this group, only the in-laws, son-in-law and daughter-in-law are required to pay inheritance tax. Others after meeting specific conditions do not have to do so.

The prerequisites for the lack of an inheritance fee is the submission of property or property rights acquired as a result of inheritance within six months to the Tax Office. This day is counted from the moment of the court’s decision on the inheritance purchase becoming final or in the case of notarial registration of the inheritance certificate. Inheritance casesthey are very simple in this case. These people create the so-called zero tax group. Are there exceptions to this situation? It is possible to report the acquisition of the inheritance later, e.g. when the heir found out about it after a period of six months from the tax obligation.

Subsequently, it is the duty of such a taxpayer to report the inheritance purchase within six months, along with proof of a later than normal date of obtaining information about the inheritance. Such a situation may take place, for example, when information about the inheritance was obtained from the bailiff who made an entry in the inventory. Regardless of whether the value of the inheritance exceeded PLN 9,637 then, people in the zero group will not pay tax on this account. However, in the event of failure to report the acquisition of the inheritance to the Tax Office,it is necessary to pay both tax and late payment interest after a period of six months.

Tax-free amount and tax groups

The tax on inheritance and donation applies to the acquisition in the form of: inheritance, ordinary and further bequests, debt collection bequests, as well as testamentary orders, donations and donors’ orders. In addition, the inheritance tax is payable in the case of acquisitive prescription, reserved share (if it was not obtained in the form of a donation, inheritance or bequest) and free of charge, e.g. a pension, usufruct or easement. Law firmsare able to help you with the tax amount owed. For the first group, the tax-free amount is PLN 9,637. It includes the aforementioned people from group zero, that is: spouse, stepchild, stepdaughter, daughter-in-law, siblings ascendants and descendants, stepfather, stepmother, siblings and in-laws, son-in-law and daughter-in-law.

The second tax group includes siblings as nephews and nephews, spouses of siblings, siblings of parents and spouses, descendants and spouses of stepchildren, spouses of siblings of spouses, as well as spouses of other descendants. The tax-free amount for this group is PLN 7276. The third and last group are people who were not included in the above groups. Here, the tax-free amount is a maximum of PLN 4,902.What is included in the exempt amount? It is calculated not so much on the value of the inheritance itself, but also on property and property rights that have passed from the testator within five years from the inheritance.

Tax values

The payment of tax depends on the value of the inheritance itself and the tax group to which it belongs. Then the tax amount can be calculated for each of them. The value of the decrease to PLN 10,278 means that the first group must pay a tax corresponding to 3% of the value, the second group is 7%, and the third – 12%.

Over PLN 10,278, but up to PLN 20,556, the tax for the first group is PLN 308.30 + 5% of the surplus above PLN 10,278. The second group of liabilities is to pay PLN 719.50 + 9% of the surplus. The third group then pays the amount of PLN 1,233.40 and 16% of the surplus.

When the value of the decrease exceeds PLN 20,556, the values for the groups are: PLN 822.20 and 7%, PLN 1,644.50 and 12%, and PLN 2,977.90 and 20%, respectively.