Do we need a Portuguese will?

If you live in Portugal or own property there, a Portuguese will makes things simpler for your family. Without a choice of law in a will, Portuguese succession rules, including fixed shares for your spouse and children, can apply to everything you own.

Which country’s law applies

Portugal applies the EU Succession Regulation (650/2012, often called “Brussels IV”) to deaths since 17 August 2015. By default, the law of the country where you were habitually resident when you died governs your whole estate. If you live in Portugal, that means Portuguese law. Before August 2015 Portugal applied the law of your nationality automatically; now you have to choose it.

• You can choose the law of your nationality to govern your whole estate. The choice must be made expressly in your will, or be clear from its terms. The regulation applies even though the UK is outside the EU, so Britons can choose, for example, the law of England and Wales, Scots law or Northern Irish law
• Without a choice, Portuguese law applies, including forced heirship
• A choice of law decides who inherits. It does not change who pays tax in either country
• The regulation also created the European Certificate of Succession, which helps executors deal with assets across the EU

Forced heirship if Portuguese law applies

Under the Portuguese Civil Code, your spouse, descendants and ascendants are “forced heirs” (herdeiros legitimários), and a share of the estate called the legítima is reserved for them. You can leave the rest as you wish.

An unmarried partner is not a forced heir, and Portugal Resident warns that stepchildren may not count as children either. If there is no will, the law calls the spouse and descendants first, then the spouse and ascendants, then brothers and sisters and their children, then other relatives up to the fourth degree, and finally the State.

Making a Portuguese will

The usual form is a public will (testamento público), written by a notary in the notary’s own book. A sealed will (testamento cerrado) is written by you and approved by a notary. Price guides put a will at about €159 at a public notary’s office, and from about €113 plus VAT at a private notary, plus their own fees. If your Portuguese isn’t fluent, ask the notary in advance how they handle translation.

• Make sure your wills fit together. If you keep a UK will for UK assets, each will should say what it covers and must not revoke the other by accident
• Say expressly which law you choose, and ask the notary to record it clearly
• Name executors who can act in Portugal, and tell your family which notary holds the will
• While you are alive, only you (or someone you authorise) can find out what your will says. After a death, anyone can order a certificate showing whether there is a will, online for €25

After a death

1. Order the certificate on whether there is a will (certidão sobre a existência de testamento) and a copy of the will from the notary
2. Confirm the heirs (habilitação de herdeiros). This is done at a notary or at the Balcão Heranças at a registry office. There, confirming the heirs costs €150, or €375 with registration of the property in all the heirs’ names, and €425 including the division of the estate (partilha) and registration
3. Report the death to the tax office by the end of the third month after the death. The head of the estate (cabeça-de-casal) files the stamp duty declaration listing the heirs and assets. Extensions of up to 60 days need a good reason
4. Divide the estate and register property in the heirs’ names
5. Watch AIMI: until the estate is divided, Portuguese property can be taxed as a single estate for AIMI unless the heirs file declarations in March and April

Portuguese stamp duty on inheritance

Portugal has no inheritance tax as such. Assets passing on death or by gift pay stamp duty (imposto do selo) of 10% of their value, and only on assets in Portugal: property and rights in Portugal, vehicles and other assets registered there, and some money owed by Portuguese debtors to Portuguese residents. UK assets don’t pay Portuguese stamp duty, even if the heir lives in Portugal.

• Exempt: spouse, unmarried partner (unido de facto), children, grandchildren and other descendants, and parents and other ascendants. Brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, stepchildren and friends pay 10%
• Lifetime gifts of property to close family avoid the 10%, but the 0.8% stamp duty on transfers of property still applies
• The declaration is still needed even when everyone is exempt

UK inheritance tax may still apply

Since 6 April 2025, UK inheritance tax on worldwide assets depends on long-term UK residence: being UK tax resident for 10 years in a row, or 10 of the previous 20 tax years. After you leave you can stay in scope for up to 10 tax years; less if you lived in the UK for fewer years (for example 3 years after leaving if you lived there for 10 to 13 years). UK property is always in scope. The standard rate is 40% above the £325,000 threshold, and everything left to a spouse or civil partner is normally free of it. From 6 April 2027, most unused pension funds and death benefits count towards your estate.

HMRC lists inheritance tax treaties with only ten countries, and Portugal is not one of them; the UK–Portugal treaties cover income tax and capital gains, not inheritance. UK law has its own relief for overseas tax charged on the same assets. Because Portugal exempts close family, double tax mostly matters when you leave Portuguese property to someone outside that circle. Get advice before you plan gifts or sell property. See your UK tax, pension and property.