We handle private estates, where we are responsible for the settlement and valuation of the estate.
One of our tasks is to distribute the inheritance based on the deceased's wishes in the will and the rules of inheritance law.
First, it must be determined what the deceased owns and what debts may exist. Next, the assets must be sold and the creditors must receive their money before the remainder is distributed to the heirs. The process of a death estate looks like this:
When a death occurs, it must be reported to the National Registry. This is usually done by the hospital, priest or undertaker.
When the death is registered, all relevant public authorities and all banks are automatically notified. All bank accounts of the deceased are blocked immediately after the death. For spouses with joint accounts, all joint accounts are also blocked. The accounts will only be reopened after the Probate Court has decided what should happen to the estate.
You can decide in your will how your funeral or interment should take place. However, it is recommended that you also inform your closest relatives of your wishes, as the will is usually not read until after the funeral has taken place.
Only members of the Danish Church have the right to a church funeral service, while everyone has the right to be buried or interred in a cemetery.
The person who orders the funeral is also liable for payment in cases where there is no money in the estate to pay for the funeral.
After death, the Probate Court decides how the estate should be treated. There are the following options:
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Simplified private probate is possible if the estate is not taxable and if neither estate tax nor additional estate tax is payable. Therefore, an estate inventory does not have to be filed with the Probate Court. Furthermore, the deceased must not have been self-employed in the past year before death.
The spouse never has to pay estate tax on his or her inheritance. However, if the couple was separated at the time of death, the spouse must pay estate tax.
Other heirs must pay estate tax if the inheritance exceeds the tax-free threshold. It is therefore a condition for simplified private probate that the assets of the estate do not exceed the threshold.
If all the heirs agree, the estate can be transferred privately. For minor heirs, the guardian must approve the private transfer.
The actual change can be carried out by us as lawyers – Contact us to hear more, but the heirs can also choose a contact person who is responsible for transferring the estate.
During the shift we ensure, among other things, that
Public probate by an authorized executor appointed by the Probate Court takes place in the following cases:
The deceased's spouse is generally entitled to sit on the undivided estate with the couple's joint property and divorce assets. This means that the estate of the deceased is not divided upon death, but the division is postponed until the surviving spouse also dies or for some other reason chooses to divide the estate.
The advantages of staying in the same house are primarily that
The disadvantages of undivided property are primarily that
Joint children bowl accept if the spouse wants to remain in the undivided estate.
Special children can accept that the spouse is in an undivided estate, but does not have to.
Has deceased assets that are his or her complete separate property, bowl they are exchanged upon death, and will thus not be included in the undivided estate.
You cannot sit in an unchangeable nest if
Spousal support allows the surviving spouse to withdraw such a large portion of the deceased's estate that the spouse's total assets (estate, inheritance, separate property and payments from the deceased's insurance and pensions) total DKK 740,000.
The rule trumps the right of the deceased's children to compulsory inheritance.
If the total assets are less than DKK 740,000, the surviving spouse will receive the entire estate as spousal support.
If the assets are greater than DKK 740,000, the spouse has the right to withdraw such a large part of the estate that the spouse's assets subsequently amount to DKK 740,000. However, in that case, the estate must either go through a private probate or be probated by an executor.
A spousal support or supplementary inheritance can therefore limit the children's compulsory inheritance as well as the inheritance rights of other heirs.
If the conditions for carrying out a tender are met, bowl The bankruptcy court chooses this method.
The value of the estate's assets may not exceed DKK 43,000 (2017 figures), excluding funeral expenses and mortgaged debt.
In the event of a will, the “closest relative” inherits. This does not have to be a spouse, cohabitant or children. The closest relative is basically defined here as the person who is “socially” closest to the deceased. Most often, it is the person who paid for the funeral and vacated the deceased’s home, but there may be exceptions.
A spouse or children cannot claim compulsory inheritance, and any heirs under a will cannot claim inheritance when the estate is distributed as a distribution.
Kurt came by the office.
He couldn't understand why he had to pay tax on the profit he had made from selling the property he had inherited from his parents last year.
It looked easy otherwise. In the probate court he had been given 2 forms, an opening status and an estate inventory, quite logical and easy to fill out. As said, so done. Kurt filled out all the papers himself and arranged whatever other practical things were in connection with the privately transferred estate.
The property was valued by the government at 1,000,000 DKK, but Kurt knew from the daily press that in family circumstances the value had to be set 15% lower, so he set the value at 850,000 DKK, and saved 15% in estate tax of 150,000 DKK (22,500 DKK) – and that was also some kind of money.
The opening status and estate inventory were approved without any problems by SKAT and the probate court.
Kurt had no intention of moving to his childhood home, so he put the property up for sale with the local real estate agent, who estimated the sale price to be DKK 1,775,000, and after an astonishingly short time – and a small discount – the property was sold for DKK 1,750,000. The selling costs amounted to DKK 100,000, a profit of DKK 800,000 compared to the price Kurt had paid for the property to the estate.
If Kurt had occupied the property himself, the profit would have been tax-free. It is not required that the property has been occupied for a specific period of time. However, there must be actual occupation.
Kurt had a rude awakening when he later received his annual statement – he had to pay tax on his profits, a total of approximately DKK 430,000.
We could only tell Kurt that he should have let the estate sell the property. The profit of DKK 800,000 would not be taxed in the estate (the net assets were less than DKK 2,641,900 in 2014), but he would have to pay an estate tax of DKK 15% (DKK 120,000), which was a saving of DKK 310,000.
It's just a shame! We can only encourage others to seek professional advice in similar situations – before making any decisions.
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