Inheriting Property in Portugal: A 2026 Guide for Foreign Owners

Portugal has no inheritance tax. It abolished it in 2004. When a spouse, child, parent, or grandchild inherits Portuguese property, they pay a stamp duty of 0.8 percent and nothing more. The complication for foreign owners is not tax. It is forced heirship, the rule that decides who must inherit regardless of what your will says.

This guide covers both halves: the small tax bill, and the succession rules that can override your intentions if you do not plan for them.

The tax: stamp duty, not inheritance tax

Portugal replaced inheritance tax with Imposto do Selo, a stamp duty on free transfers of assets. For Portuguese real estate the rate is 10 percent, but the law exempts the closest family. Transfers to a spouse, descendants (children and grandchildren), and ascendants (parents and grandparents) are exempt from the 10 percent charge. They pay only a 0.8 percent stamp duty on the property's taxable value.

So a child inheriting a Lisbon apartment pays 0.8 percent of its fiscal value. A niece, a friend, or an unmarried partner without registered status inheriting the same apartment pays 10.8 percent. The relationship between the deceased and the heir, not the size of the estate, sets the rate.

This applies to the Portuguese asset specifically. Stamp duty is charged on assets located in Portugal, which means your home in the Algarve is caught regardless of where you or your heirs live.

The real issue: forced heirship

Portuguese succession law imposes legítima, a forced share of the estate that must pass to a protected class of heirs. You cannot disinherit them through a will. The protected heirs are the spouse, descendants, and ascendants.

The reserved portion is large. When a spouse and children both survive, the legítima is two-thirds of the estate, leaving only one-third that you can freely dispose of. When only a spouse survives, or only descendants survive, the forced share is one-half. The remainder, the quota disponível, is the only part you can leave to whomever you choose.

For a foreign owner this can produce an outcome you never intended. If your home country lets you leave everything to a surviving spouse, and you assumed that would apply to your Portuguese property, Portuguese forced heirship could instead route two-thirds of that property to your children.

How EU Succession Regulation 650/2012 fixes it

The escape route is European. Regulation (EU) No 650/2012, often called Brussels IV, governs which national law applies to a cross-border estate. The default is the law of the country where the deceased was habitually resident at death, which for a long-term expat in Portugal is Portuguese law, forced heirship included.

But the regulation lets you choose the law of your nationality to govern your entire succession instead. A British, Irish, or other national can elect their home-country law and, if that law has testamentary freedom, escape Portuguese forced heirship. This choice must be made expressly and in proper form, normally a clause in your will. Without that clause, the default rule applies and forced heirship governs.

A practical note. The United Kingdom did not opt into the regulation, but UK nationals can still benefit, because the regulation applies in participating EU states like Portugal and recognises a choice of UK law. The mechanics are worth confirming with a lawyer who handles cross-border estates, because the interaction between Portuguese practice and your home-country law has detail that a generic will does not capture.

Wills, probate, and practical planning

Owning property in two or more countries usually argues for either one carefully drafted will covering worldwide assets with a clear choice-of-law clause, or separate wills for each jurisdiction that are written so they do not accidentally revoke each other. The wrong combination can revoke a clause you needed. This is the single most common drafting error for cross-border owners.

When the time comes, the Portuguese estate is settled through a process called habilitação de herdeiros, which formally identifies the heirs, followed by registration of the property into their names at the Land Registry (Conservatória do Registo Predial) and payment of the 0.8 percent stamp duty. Heirs will need Portuguese tax numbers (NIF) to complete the transfer.

Before you plan your estate

Confirm two things early. First, whether you want a choice-of-law clause electing your nationality's law, and whether that law actually gives you the freedom you assume. Second, that the property's title and registration are clean and accurately recorded in your name, because an unregistered improvement or a boundary discrepancy becomes your heirs' problem at the worst possible time.

If the property was bought from a developer, especially off-plan, verify that the title was properly transferred and registered after completion. Bektu (https://bektu.com) is useful for checking a developer's delivery and handover history, the kind of record that reveals whether registration was ever properly closed out.

Portugal is a low-cost place to inherit property for close family. The work is in the will, not the tax return. Get the choice-of-law decision right and you keep control of who inherits.