Inheriting or gifting a home in Mallorca: the relief is real, and it has conditions

Is this you?

• You are inheriting a property in Mallorca and live in Germany, the United Kingdom, Switzerland or elsewhere.
• You want to pass a house on to your children during your lifetime and want to know what it costs.
• You own property here and want your will and your home-country succession to fit together.

What Spanish law requires

On death, the Balearic rules grant a 100% reduction of the tax due for descendants, spouses and ascendants, with no upper limit. For siblings, nieces and nephews the relief is 50% where the deceased left no descendants, and 25% otherwise. The value of real estate must be stated in the deed and may not exceed its real value. The duty to file remains even where the result is nil.

Since 25 July 2025, lifetime gifts enjoy a 100% deduction for spouses, ascendants and descendants, 60% for siblings, nieces and nephews, and 35% for relatives by marriage. For gifts of real estate the value in the deed may not exceed the reference value increased by 20%. If it does, the benefit is not cancelled but downgraded to a much smaller reduction.

Non-resident heirs and donees can apply the Balearic rules where the property is in the islands. The return is filed with the State tax administration rather than the Balearic agency, which changes the procedure but not the outcome.

The relief does not reach the municipal land value tax, which remains payable to the town hall, nor the donor's own tax on a gift: the person giving a property away must declare the capital gain, as on a sale. On death there is no such gain.

Balearic law also allows succession agreements, by which property passes during the donor's lifetime with the tax treatment of an inheritance. Whether a German Erbvertrag receives the same treatment is not settled and needs case-by-case analysis.

Deadlines: six months from the date of death, extendable by a further six if requested within the first five; thirty working days from the deed for gifts. Late filing when the tax is nil is not a minor lapse, because it puts the relief itself at risk.

What we do

• Planning before signing: the value to be stated in the deed against the reference value, the degree of kinship of each recipient, and which regional rules apply.
• The choice between a gift, a succession agreement and a will, with the donor's capital gain and the municipal tax in the comparison.
• Coordination with your home-country succession: the EU Succession Regulation, the choice of law in your will, and the recognition of foreign documents.
• NIE for each heir, the inheritance or gift deed before a Spanish notary, and the filing of the tax returns from abroad.
• Registration of the property in the heir's name and the municipal land value tax return.

What we need from you

Send these by email or through the secure link we give you after the first call. We tell you exactly what is missing.

• The death certificate and the will, or the certificate of last wills, with an apostille where issued abroad.
• The purchase deed of the property and the IBI receipt.
• Passport and NIE of each heir or donee, or we obtain the NIE.
• A certificate of tax residence of each recipient.
• For a gift: the reference value of the property for the current year, which we obtain.

Deadlines

Frequently asked questions

Sources: Decreto ley 4/2023 of 18 July; Ley 11/2023; Ley 6/2025, Balearic budget act, with effect from 25 July 2025; Ley 8/2022 on voluntary contractual succession; Ley 29/1987 on inheritance and gift tax; Regulation (EU) 650/2012.

This page is general information and reflects the rules in force on the date shown. It is not advice and does not replace an assessment of your own case. Last reviewed: 18 September 2026.