British expats in Spain: do you need a UK will, a Spanish will, or both?

It depends on what you own and where, but if you have meaningful assets in both Spain and the UK, the practical answer is usually both: two wills written to work together. One covers your Spanish assets and the Spanish paperwork; one covers your UK assets and UK probate. That isn't legal box-ticking. It's about who actually inherits, how much tax your family pays, and how much of a paper-chase they face in two countries at once.

Three separate questions sit underneath this, and expats tend to mix them up: which law decides who inherits, which taxes are due and who pays them, and what your family has to do after you die. A will can help with all three. But choosing English law over Spanish law only changes the first one. It does nothing to tax. Keep those apart and most of the confusion clears.

Spanish forced heirship: the part that surprises people

In England and Wales you can broadly leave your estate to whomever you like. Spain doesn't work that way. Under the Spanish Civil Code, a fixed share of your estate is reserved for certain heirs. This is forced heirship, la legítima.

In the common-law parts of Spain, children and descendants are reserved two-thirds of the estate. Only the remaining third is genuinely free for you to leave as you choose. The surviving spouse is protected too, but usually through a usufruct: a life interest, the right to use an asset or take its income, rather than outright ownership. So a husband or wife may end up able to live in the house without actually owning it, with the children holding the ownership beneath them. People often picture the spouse inheriting the house when Spanish law may give them only a right to use it.

There's a complication on top. Spain doesn't have one single set of rules. Several regions have their own. Catalonia reserves only a quarter of the estate for children. The Balearics, the Basque Country and Navarre each differ again, with Navarre coming close to full freedom of choice. So "Spanish inheritance law" means very little until you know which region applies. If you're remarried, have an unmarried partner, stepchildren, or simply want to leave things differently from what the default allows, this is where Spanish law can override your intentions.

The Brussels IV route: choosing English law

There is a well-established way for a British national in Spain to step around forced heirship. It's the EU Succession Regulation, often called Brussels IV, which applies to deaths since August 2015.

Its default is that the law of the country where you habitually live governs your succession. So, living in Spain, Spanish law and its forced heirship would normally apply. But the Regulation also lets you choose the law of your nationality instead. As a British national you can elect the law of England and Wales to govern your succession, by stating it clearly in your will. Do that, and English-style freedom to choose your beneficiaries can apply rather than the Spanish reserved shares.

A few things to be clear about. The UK never signed up to the Regulation, but that doesn't matter here, because Spain did, and Spain applies it in Spanish estates. Brexit didn't change this, since the UK was already outside it. The election has to be properly drafted into the will to work. And, the point people miss, it is not a tax election. Choosing English law decides who inherits. It does not reduce or remove Spanish inheritance tax.

One will, two, or both?

No single answer fits everyone, but the pattern is fairly consistent.

If you have no Spanish assets, you don't suddenly need a Spanish will just because you live there. If you own only a Spanish flat and little in the UK, you may manage with one Spanish will containing a clear choice of English law. If you have real assets in both countries, two coordinated wills usually serve you best, because the question of who inherits and the question of how the estate is administered are not the same thing.

The case for a Spanish will is administrative. A Spanish will is signed before a notary and recorded centrally, so after death the family can trace it through the Spanish wills registry and deal with the notary directly. For a Spanish house, a Spanish bank account or a car, that smooths the immediate steps considerably.

The case for a UK will is control over the UK side. It lets you appoint executors who can handle UK banks, investment platforms, HMRC and the Probate Registry, and tailor things to your UK tax position. Even where a Spanish will exists, UK probate may still be needed for UK assets. A Spanish will doesn't replace it.

The trap with two wills

The risk when you have more than one will is accidental revocation. UK wills routinely include a clause cancelling all earlier wills. If a later will isn't carefully limited, it can wipe out the other one without anyone intending it, and suddenly part of your estate passes under rules you were trying to avoid.

The fix is coordination. Each will should state exactly which country's assets it covers and revoke only those. Executor appointments and the choice-of-law wording should line up across both. Two badly drafted wills are worse than one good one, so if you go the two-will route, they need to be drawn up as a pair, with each adviser aware of the other document.

Spanish inheritance tax: a separate question

Spanish inheritance tax, the Impuesto sobre Sucesiones y Donaciones, or ISD, works very differently from the UK version, and this is where families get caught out.

It's charged on the person receiving the inheritance, not on the estate as a whole. Residents in Spain are taxed on what they inherit worldwide; non-residents on Spanish assets. The headline rates can look alarming, but the real burden depends heavily on the region and on your relationship to the person who died. Madrid and Andalusia, for example, apply very large reductions, around 99 per cent, for close family such as spouses and children, and Catalonia gives spouses a 99 per cent reduction with a smaller sliding one for children, though the detail varies and can't be assumed from one region to the next. So "Spanish inheritance tax is high" is too crude to be useful until you know the region and the family relationship.

Two practical points matter. There is a six-month deadline from the date of death to file, with a possible extension if you ask in time, and late filing brings surcharges. And foreign documents generally need an apostille (an official certification that a document is genuine) plus a sworn translation before the Spanish authorities will accept them. For many families the bottleneck isn't the tax sum itself; it's getting the paperwork into the right official form quickly enough.

The key thing to hold on to: even if English law governs who inherits because of a Brussels IV choice, Spanish inheritance tax can still apply to Spanish assets, and still varies enormously by region and beneficiary. Who inherits and who pays tax are two different questions.

Don't assume you've left UK inheritance tax behind

Living in Spain doesn't switch off UK inheritance tax. Anything physically in the UK, a house especially, stays within it wherever you live. And since 6 April 2025, whether your worldwide assets are caught depends on long-term residence: broadly, if you were UK resident for at least 10 of the last 20 tax years, you can remain in scope for up to 10 years after leaving.

There's an added wrinkle with Spain: it isn't on the UK's list of inheritance tax treaty countries. The UK-Spain treaty covers income and capital gains, not death taxes. So where both countries tax the same asset on death, relief depends on a unilateral credit rather than a treaty. That's another reason the UK and Spanish sides of your planning need to be looked at together, not in isolation.

A few real situations

David and Anne retired to Valencia ten years ago and rent there, with their wealth still almost entirely in England: a UK house, ISAs, UK accounts, no Spanish property. Their main need is a solid UK will with executors who can handle UK probate. A Spanish will may be unnecessary, though they should still check their Spanish tax position.

Sarah lives in Málaga with a flat and savings in Spain, no UK assets left, remarried, and wants everything to go to her current husband rather than her adult children from her first marriage. This is the classic case for a Spanish will with a clear election for English law. Without it, Spanish forced heirship could hand a fixed share to her children against her wishes.

James owns a house in Kent and a flat in Alicante, with investments and accounts in both countries and children in England. He's the profile that most often justifies two coordinated wills: a UK will for UK probate and tax, a Spanish will for the Spanish property, each with carefully limited revocation wording so neither cancels the other.

Where this leaves you

For British expats in Spain, the answer usually isn't UK will or Spanish will. It's making sure both sides of your estate are covered and that the documents are coordinated. Keep the three questions separate: English law can protect who inherits, Spanish tax still applies to Spanish assets, and the UK can still tax UK assets for years after you leave.

A properly drafted UK will, written to sit alongside your Spanish arrangements, is what keeps your wishes intact and your family out of an avoidable mess. That's what Expat Legacy does: clear, valid UK wills for British expats, in plain English.

Sources

• Regulation (EU) No 650/2012, Articles 21 and 22 (EUR-Lex)
• Succession in Spain (European e-Justice Portal)
• Modelo 650 filing deadlines (Agencia Tributaria)
• Inheritance Tax: Double Taxation Relief (GOV.UK)
• Inheritance Tax if you're a long-term UK resident (GOV.UK)

This article is general information, not legal or tax advice. Spanish succession and tax rules vary by region and your situation is your own, so it's worth getting advice tailored to you, on both the UK and the Spanish side, before you act.