The Directorate General for Legal Certainty and Public Faith has resolved an appeal against a registrar's classification, determining that an heir's renunciation in favour of specific siblings is not an abdicative renunciation, but rather an assignment of rights (translatative renunciation). This distinction is crucial because, as an assignment, the beneficiary acquires the heir's rights rather than those of the deceased, which prevents the application of the vulgar substitution ordered in the will (Art. 1,000 of the Civil Code). The ruling emphasises that translatative renunciation implies the prior acquisition of rights in order to assign them.
For heirs, the method used to formalise a renunciation determines the fate of the inheritance share: if renounced purely and simply (abdicative), the share passes to the substitutes designated in the will; if renounced in favour of specific persons (translatative), an assignment is made that alters the prescribed order of succession (Art. 1,000 of the Civil Code). Tax-wise, renouncing in favour of specific persons requires the renouncing party to pay inheritance tax, in addition to any tax due on the assignment or gift (Art. 28 of the Inheritance and Gift Tax Law).
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