“Be very careful with the practice of withdrawing money from the bank before death”

Inheritance tax is a tax that must be paid when an inheritance is received. It must be paid when there is a transfer of assets or rights from one person to another due to death and free of charge.

Some people, to avoid the obligation to pay it, choose to empty the account of a family member whose death is imminent, probable or close, in order to avoid having to report to the Tax Agency. But it is a mistake.

This is how he explains it David Jimenezlawyer and economist, who spreads advice and practices on these types of topics on social networks. In a video on Instagram, the lawyer warns of this decision.

Jiménez explains in his video that “the law presumes that all the money in the account of the deceased from one year ago “is part of the inheritance and, therefore, will be subject to inheritance tax.”

The key is in a concept called tax presumption of addition of assets. It is a figure that allows the tax administration to include in the estate (the mass of assets to be distributed) those assets that the deceased owned or transmitted. in the year before his deathpresuming that they were not a real donation, but rather a concealment for tax purposes.

Of course, the heirs can prove the opposite, for which they must provide evidence, such as invoices, bank transactions or receipts to disprove this presumption and prevent them from being added to the tax.

For this reason, David Jiménez concludes his video saying: “Great care with the practice of emptying the accounts to avoid paying taxes because then we have surprises with the Treasury”.

How should you act?

After death, the heirs They must notify the bank. Next, the entity will block the account until the heirs prove their status as such to access the money stored in it.

To this end, the bank will need the heirs to present the Death Certificate and Last Will Certificatean authorized copy of the will or, if there is none, a copy of the declaration of heirs. Likewise, all documents that prove the acceptance, distribution and adjudication of the inheritance among the heirs, as well as the settlement of the inheritance tax, will be required to be presented.