Irish residents with Spanish nationality getting married in Ireland. What country law applies?

hi all,

My girlfriend and I are considering getting married. We are both from Spain and have been living in Ireland for many years. So, we are Irish residents with Spanish nationality

The laws in Spain and Ireland are different in terms of divorce, inheritance... If we were getting married, what law will prevail? The Irish one or the Spanish one?

In other words, what law will apply? The resident country law, the citizenship law or the law of the country where you get married?

As an example, if we get married in Ireland, what country law will apply? Spain or Ireland?
And if we get married in Las Vegas?

I rang the Spanish embassy and they answered "Irish Law", but i rang a solicitor and he answered "Spanish law" instead...

Thanks!!!

Depends. Taxes depend on a number of issues, residence, ordinary residence and domicile. So it will depend on your circumstances if/when you die/or inherit and also where the asset you inherit or leave to another party is based. So for eg, certain Irish specified assets will always be subject to Irish tax law. In relation to family law- divorce etc, it will depend on where you live then, where you are domiciled, where you initiate proceedings. So it depends!

Thanks for your reply Vanilla!

I see it is a complex case, but with an example I might understand it better

We have been both living in Ireland for more than 10 years.
Say we marry in Ireland this year and then we want to divorce next year. Under Spanish law we could divorce after 1 year of marriage but under Irish that would not be possible. Could we divorce?

Thanks again

Not if you still reside in Ireland, will have to wait for 5 to 7 years separation before divorce is settled.

Chantilly said:

Not if you still reside in Ireland, will have to wait for 5 to 7 years separation before divorce is settled.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply!

So, if a recently married Spanish couple comes to Ireland to live, both become resident in the country and 1 year later they want to divorce... if I understood well they cannot divorce because they both reside in Ireland?

Another example, if one day I receive inheritance money from a Spanish relative, will I have to pay inheritance taxes in Spain (where I am from and the money comes from) or in Ireland (where I am resident)?

Thanks

Check the following on europa.eu

Where can you file for divorce/separation?
You can file your request with the courts in the country where:

• you and your spouse live
• you last lived together – provided one of you still lives there
• one of you lives – provided you are filing a joint application
• your spouse lives
• you live, if:
  • you have lived there at least 6 months immediately before filing and
  • are a national of that country.
  If you are not a national, you can file only if you have lived there at least 1 year immediately before filing
  
  
• both you and your spouse are nationals.

The court with powers to rule on your divorce is the first court where the request is filed (if it meets the above conditions).

The court with powers to transform a legal separation into a divorce (if this is in line with that country's rules) is the court in the EU country that ruled on the legal separation.


Hope that helps.

will have to wait for 5 to 7 years separation before divorce is settled

Click to expand...

You must be separated or living apart for 4 of the last 5 years at the time of application.

Whilst I can understand wanting to know all the practicalities... it's a bit depressing that you're researching about divorce when ye are not even married yet.

Thirsty said:

You must be separated or living apart for 4 of the last 5 years at the time of application.

Whilst I can understand wanting to know all the practicalities... it's a bit depressing that you're researching about divorce when ye are not even married yet.

Click to expand...

Hi Thristy, thanks for for reply.
I can fully understand why you are saying that, but I think that it might just be a misunderstanding of the motivation of the thread. In my posts I was just asking about country law in general: inheritance, divorce...
I presented 2 examples to understand better the complexities of different country laws in the EU, and the divorce one is the one that was picked up, which is a good example I think...

mixyJohnson said:

Thanks for your reply!

So, if a recently married Spanish couple comes to Ireland to live, both become resident in the country and 1 year later they want to divorce... if I understood well they cannot divorce because they both reside in Ireland?

Another example, if one day I receive inheritance money from a Spanish relative, will I have to pay inheritance taxes in Spain (where I am from and the money comes from) or in Ireland (where I am resident)?

Thanks

Click to expand...

I only wanted to give 2 examples of different country laws, but I understand why you thought that way

Chantilly said:

Check the following on europa.eu

Where can you file for divorce/separation?
You can file your request with the courts in the country where:

• you and your spouse live
• you last lived together – provided one of you still lives there
• one of you lives – provided you are filing a joint application
• your spouse lives
• you live, if:
  • you have lived there at least 6 months immediately before filing and
  • are a national of that country.
  If you are not a national, you can file only if you have lived there at least 1 year immediately before filing
  
  
• both you and your spouse are nationals.

The court with powers to rule on your divorce is the first court where the request is filed (if it meets the above conditions).

The court with powers to transform a legal separation into a divorce (if this is in line with that country's rules) is the court in the EU country that ruled on the legal separation.


Hope that helps.

Click to expand...

Hi Chantilly,

Thanks for your informative reply. The europa.eu site has lots of useful information

It is interesting because, if I have understood it well, in terms of inheritance law Ireland has a very favorable system if the beneficiary of the inheritance is the spouse or civil partner. However, for other relationship levels not that much, and the CGT could be quite high. So, as an EU citizen you can live almost all your life in one country but your last residence can have a huge impact in terms of taxes. I guess this will change

Hi there,

Strange question for people getting married. Love should be there not divorce questions

Any way I am Irish and married a Spanish Girl. After 7 years I got an Irish divorce as she moved back to Spain. Sound good so far. Problem came when I wanted to Marry a Polish girl in Poland. They wanted me to be divorced in Ireland & Spain and I ended up paying for a 2nd divorce from the same woman.

I will not go into the whole Polish church Marriage thing. (1ST was was civil wedding) nightmare

Moral of the story. Stay married