Inheritance with no will and its tax implications

Hi,my mother passed away two years ago and because she had no will her house and land will be divided equally between four adult children.
My three siblings and I are in agreement that we want our share of the house to go to our brother who lives there and this was also my mother’s wish. We have no issue with this.
The land however is different. One sibling wants to pass their share along to the same brother. Another sibling is unsure what to do and I want to keep all or part of my share in the hope of getting planning permission for a house eventually.
The land is made up of numerous very small fields scattered about the surrounding countryside and has been used to farm about ten cattle at most.
Can I keep my share if the land and what are the tax implications? The value would be a maximum of about €70,000.
It has been suggested I will have a tax bill and that to avoid this I need to just let my brother have it along with the house and then he can gift me back a site or two…this seems crazy to me.
Do I have to give up what I have inherited and then ask my brother for some of it back? Crazy!!
Any advice would be helpful and especially advice on keeping my share of the land and the tax implications.
Thank you.

You and your siblings, each, are eligible to inherit 400000 in total from your parents so any previous inheritance (if any) from your father must also be accounted for( or any other group A inheritance).
Revenue link here
What is the total value of your mother's estate? (House/land/money/bank accounts etc).
This is divided by 4.
If this amount (including any previous inheritance (s)) is less than 400000 then you have no inheritance tax liability.


Regarding the land.
You indicate it's a series of separate fields.
It could be possible to get some local auctioneer to value each isolated plot.
Then you may be able to take 1 or more fields equal to your share.

Now the fun starts.

It is possible to disclaim an inheritance.
However, I do not know if you can disclaim parts of must disclaim it all.
Also whether you can specify who is to get it or if it just remains part of the estate I don't know either.

Should you take your share and then gift your share of the house to your brother there may be a tax liability for him not you.
The group B threshold would apply, this would have to include any "gifts" from his other siblings.

There may be a tax liability but it's most likely your brothers not yours.

If you disclaim the inheritance on the understanding that you will get a "site" later is probably another minefield.

I think you need proper legal advice before agree to anything.

The first thing to do is value the estate, the house and the field. Say for the sake of discussion that the house is worth €300K and say you have 10 fields of 1 acre each valued at €12K per acre.

Total value of estate is €420K, so if all were sold and divided between the 4 of you it would be worth €105K each.

So plan 1.
Brother at home takes house and no land. Sibling 1 disclaims his inheritance, sibling 2 and yourself get 5 fields each.
Since sibling 1 disclaimed the estate was divided between 3 of you. €140K each. You end up with 5 fields worth €60K. You have given your brother a “gift” worth €80K and he needs to pay gift tax on this, he can only get a group B threshold gift from you. He pays revenue about €16K for the gift from you, and the same with the gift from sibling 2.

Maybe there is a smarter way to do it.

Plan 2
Brother at home takes house and all land. All other siblings disclaim their inheritance. Brother then gifts you 2 fields. Brother at home pays inheritance tax on anything over €335K, about €28K.

You get 2 fields worth €24K as a gift from your brother but pay no gift tax as you are under the threshold.

There are plenty of other scenarios you can run and you can see which suits your family and who pays. There will be a way to solve it if the 4 of you pull together. But it would have been a lot easier if your Mam had made a will.

There's probably the outline of a plan in there but it's hard to compute a situation where 2 1-acre plots of accessible arable land anywhere in the country could have an open market value as low as €12k each.

This seems like a tailormade scenario for a Deed of Family Arrangement

Askaboutmoney is no substitute for professional legal and tax advice.

Get a solicitor to advise you on your options.

If the solicitor has a good understanding of tax, they may also be able to advise on the tax implications or else they will refer you to a tax advisor.

T McGibney said:

accessible arable land anywhere in the country could have an open market value as low as €12k each.

Click to expand...

I just went with this Too little info to make any more of a stab at it, no idea of location, potential for planning permission, or anything else. It is currently being used to raise cattle so farmland average value.

Thank you all very much for your advice. I have a better understanding of things now and that will help when I am speaking to a solicitor,at least I have some idea of some options.
Most of the land is craggy and not worth much so it’s well below the threshold. The house has been valued at about €280,000 I believe.
Thankfully we as a family have no problem with who gets what really but are trying to figure out the best way forward to avoid a bigger tax bill than necessary.
I appreciate you all for taking the time to answer and it’s helped me see there are numerous options to look at.

That is a very low value for this house