Nephews and a house in Ireland

[Alex Muner]

There are a husband and his wife both of which only have one blood related nephew left, lets call then nephew husband and nephew wife. Now it happens that the wife dies first without a will. Their entire property, a House and some additional pieces of land are inherited by her husband, based on a statement from the husbands lawyer. (Is that so?) Now the question is what happen should the husband die one day without a will? Does the house and the properties go to the nephew husband only, or in equal shares to the nephew husband and nephew wife.

 

[emeralds]

The wife dying without a will means the entire estate (house and lands) go to her husband under the rules of intestacy (here in Ireland). So the wife's nephew is no longer entitled to any of the estate from this point on.
If the husband then dies without a will, then yes his nephew will inherit all of the estate.

It's important to make a will.

 

[Mags0709]

And also bear in mind that the nephew will only get a maximum 31,000 tax free from the estate assuming no previous group B inheritances - and then pay 33% CAT on the excess. So it may be worth asking the nephew first - as this could put him in financial difficulties if the property might be hard to sell (e.g. its in a rural area).

I had an aunt who left me (her blood niece) and her non blood nephew (her deceased husband’s – my uncle’s - nephew) 50% of a house each.


The non blood nephew was treated as a group C beneficiary so only received 16,000 euro tax free from the estate – as a non blood nephew he was not eligible for group B. Considering my ‘non blood’ uncle worked and paid for the house I thought this was a bit unfair.


Its just a shame these stupid thresholds aren’t abolished.


Why not just say everyone gets a lifetime tax free gift/CAT allowance (say 350k euro) whoever they inherit from. It would simplify the system totally and make it easier for people to understand - albeit accountants might make less money!


Grandparents could then gift direct to grandkids – and people without kids would not be penalised. The current thresholds are just plain nasty – and effectively treat the childless like they are second class Irish citizens.