Ignacio Cano is 41 and lives in Valladolid. His aunt Remedios died in Palencia on 7 April 2026 and left him, by will, her flat, valued at about 160,000 €, and an account with 6,000 €. As a nephew, Ignacio does not have the reductions available to children or spouses, and after applying the regional rules the tax comes to 21,300 €. The deadline for filing ends on 7 October. His plan is to sell the flat, but there will not be time: the sale will not be signed before spring. There is not enough money in the estate and he does not have 21,300 € in savings.
Spanish inheritance tax (Impuesto sobre Sucesiones) is designed precisely for this problem: estates with plenty of assets and little cash. It has its own deferral rules, different from the general ones and, in some cases, more favourable.
Two sets of rules side by side
Article 81 of the Inheritance and Gift Tax Regulations, approved by Royal Decree 1629/1991, says that the general rules of the Reglamento General de Recaudación (the General Collection Regulations) apply to the tax, "without prejudice to" the special cases it goes on to regulate. So an heir can choose between:
- The general deferral, just as for any other tax debt: you apply, show a temporary difficulty and propose a schedule.
- The special deferrals in articles 82 to 85 of the tax's Regulations, which rest on article 38 of Law 29/1987.
The special ones share one condition: they must be applied for before the regulatory payment period ends, and the estate must not contain enough cash or easily realisable assets to pay the tax. That is exactly Ignacio's situation.
The four special options
| Option | Article of the Regulations | Term | Guarantee | Interest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deferral | 82 | Up to one year | The article does not mention one | Late-payment interest |
| Instalments | 83 | Up to five annual instalments | Undertaking to provide a guarantee for the debt plus interest, plus 25 % | Late-payment interest |
| Unknown heirs | 84 | Until the heirs are known | Undertaking to provide a guarantee, as above | Late-payment interest |
| Deceased's sole-trader business or main home | Art. 39 of the Inheritance Tax Act and art. 85 of its Regulations | Five years' deferral with no interest, then ten half-yearly instalments | Sufficient security; statutory interest only during the instalments | Statutory interest |
The last option is the most advantageous, but its scope is narrow. For the main home, section 3 of article 85 reserves it for the deceased's spouse, ascendants and descendants, or for a collateral relative over sixty-five who had lived with the deceased for the two years before the death. A 41-year-old nephew who lives in another city does not qualify. In addition, under section 4, it only covers the proportional part of the tax that corresponds to the home or the business.
Ignacio's figures with two options
Interest is calculated at an assumed rate of 4 % a year, purely for the example. The real rate is the late-payment interest rate in force when it starts to accrue, as articles 82 and 83 themselves say.
Option 1: one-year deferral (article 82).
- Debt deferred: 21,300 €.
- One year's interest at the assumed rate: 21,300 × 4 % = 852 €.
- Total to pay within a year: 22,152 €.
- It fits his plan: he sells the flat in spring and pays with the proceeds.
Option 2: five annual instalments (article 83).
- Each annual instalment: 21,300 / 5 = 4,260 € of principal.
- Accumulated interest, calculating each instalment over its own time: about 2,556 € in total.
- Guarantee he must undertake to provide: (21,300 + 2,556) × 1.25 = 29,820 €.
- The final grant depends on his providing that guarantee.
For Ignacio, who is going to sell, the first option is cheaper and does not force him to look for a bank guarantee. The second makes sense for someone who wants to keep the property and pay out of their income over several years.
All the special options must be applied for before the regulatory payment period ends. For an inheritance that is self-assessed, that period coincides with the six months for filing from the date of death. If it is allowed to pass, only the general deferral remains, and by then in the enforcement period, with its surcharge.
When the tax is self-assessed
In most autonomous communities (Spain's regions) the tax is self-assessed: the heir calculates and pays. For that case article 90 of the Regulations refers to the general collection rules, with one special feature. If the office receiving the self-assessment has the power to grant the deferral and the requirements of articles 82 to 84 are met, the application can be filed within the first five months of the period. If it is refused, the payment period is treated as extended by the number of days the refusal took, with the corresponding interest.
That extension is valuable: it prevents a late refusal from leaving the heir with no time to pay. But it only works if the application is made within those five months. Ignacio, with the estate opened on 7 April, had until 7 September to use that route. He can still apply for the deferral, special or ordinary, before the period ends on 7 October, but no longer with the safety net of that extension if it is refused.
The guide on time limits and extensions in inheritance tax explains how the extension for filing combines with deferral of payment.
The deceased's own money
Before deferring, it is worth seeing whether the tax can be paid with what the deceased left. Article 80.3 of the Regulations allows the heirs, when the authorities issue the assessment, to ask within eight days of its notification for the bank to be authorised to sell the deceased's securities or use the balance of their accounts to pay the tax directly. In practice it saves the heirs from having to advance their own money.
The 6,000 € in aunt Remedios's account does not cover the debt, but it reduces what has to be deferred. We deal with this in more detail in there is no cash to pay the tax.
If you are in a similar situation and need to know which option fits before the deadline expires, you can send us the inheritance documents through the deferral form. We will check which route is available and how much time you have left, without being able to guarantee that the office will grant it.
Who decides, and within what limits
Inheritance tax is devolved to the autonomous communities, and it is their offices that process deferrals when the deceased and the heirs are resident in Spain. Each community can set its own limits for waiving guarantees. The 50,000 € threshold in Order HFP/311/2023 belongs to the State tax authorities and does not automatically apply to a debt with a region. To find out which office is competent, see the table of competences for the tax.
If the heir or the deceased was not resident in Spain, the tax is managed by the State's Agencia Tributaria, the Spanish tax agency, and then its limit does apply. That is the case we deal with in inheriting a flat in Spain as a non-resident. What the law of the heir's country of residence says about that same inheritance has to be confirmed by their adviser there.
For the cost of each schedule in more detail, see how much interest you pay to defer. And the general time limit for settling the inheritance is in how long you have to settle an inheritance.
In inheritances without cash, Salama Tax coordinates the deferral with the tax's own time limits and with whichever regional or State office turns out to be competent.