Question about inheritance overseas

[earlyriser]

I am an Australian and my partner was left part of an estate in Ireland with a valuable property as the centerpiece. To our knowledge the property will not be able to be sold for 6-12 months so the plan is to rent out to the property until it can be sold after either a 6 or 12 month lease.

From what we have found the inheritance tax free threshold in Ireland for a grandchild is 33K Euro - does this apply considering my partner does not live in Ireland or plan to live in Ireland? If the property is rented for a period before being sold does this mean tax exemptions due to the inheritance will no longer apply? Or are they payable regardless (capital gains etc)?

Any help is much appreciated, as you can tell we are not too knowledgeable about this sort of thing and it is difficult to understand what I am finding on google. The main parties involved do not currently have a lawyer that I am aware of because the last one did not want to deal with this.

If it is any help any inheritance can be brought in to Australia tax free. 

[daverobev]

I think you'll need to talk to a solicitor in Ireland. Usually, AFAIK, the tax owing on the inheritance is calculated on the value of the inheritance at the point of taking ownership.. if the value changes between that date, and the date it gets sold, you may have to pay cap gains on the difference as well. I suspect residency won't make any difference to the tax free bit.

I don't think the Australia bit is (for what you're asking) relevant; it's all about how Ireland works. That's how it sounds.

But yeah. Surely the executor of the will and the solicitor will deal with all this *before* any money gets passed on..?

[Daleth]

I think you'll need to talk to a solicitor in Ireland.

Yes, this is a question for an Irish estates & trusts lawyer, not an internet forum. Although we'd be very interested to hear how it all shakes out, and to help you make sure you cover all the bases in terms of the questions you ask the lawyer.

[goodlife]

Definitely speak to a lawyer on this and ask him if there is any "generation skipping" in Ireland. I know in some other European countries you can skip a generation (ie. pass on assets to your grandchild instead of your child) and then then there is no inheritance tax.