unbalanced will

[moonman]

my brother is the executor of his father in laws will. in the will the only asset is the house. there are eight in the family and the will states that the house is to be sold and , and a named son has enough money and is to get 4 thousand euro, the rest of the money from the sale of the house is to be divided evenly among the other 7 siblings. this will work at about 25 to 27 thousand . most of the sons and daughters actually want everyone to get the same amount there could possibly one of the family not in favour of an even split but they think that this person could be talked around. could the family solicitor sort it, if all are willing to have an even share. would there be a problem with gift tax, i,e brother to sister etc.

 

[Thirsty]

IANAL

Simplest solution might be to execute the will as written, sell the property, complete the bequests and then each of the seven siblings can hand over a portion to sibling no. 8.

Making a rough guess that the house will realise say 180k after all estate costs are provided for...

As the will stands
Sibling no. 8 inherits 4k
Siblings 1-7 inherit 25k (rounded figure)

Proposed change
Equal shares of 22.5k

So if you go with the will as it stands, each of the seven siblings gives sibling no. 8 a gift of €2,500 from their share.

 

[moonman]

do you know how much a sibling can receive before they are liable for gift tax.

 

[mf1]

http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/cat/thresholds.html

mf

 

[moonman]

so does this mean that the person who was left only 4k can now receive a total of 30k from his/her siblings in total, before tax would be deducted, excuse my lack of knowledge on this subject as this is the 1st time any of my family have had to deal with it.

 

[stephnyc]

no, due to the €3k exemption, there would be no CAT liable on the €2.5K from each sibling.

Looks like Thirsty is spot on.

 

[Bronte]

Wouldn't it be simpler to renounce, then inherit via intestacy, so all assets are equally divided. Then 7 sibling pay the 1 sibling the bit they are missing. How much are we talking herre.

27 X 8 = 216. 216 / 7 = 30 each. Sibling needs to get 3K from 7 siblings, ie four hundred and twent eight euros each. Everybody happy. There's always one !

 

[Padraigb]

... there could possibly one of the family not in favour of an even split but they think that this person could be talked around...

This is not simply a legal issue: it is a family relations one. The amount of "talking around" of the individual who is not in favour of an even split could cause long-term problems.