Nuno Cunha Barnabé explains how to recover tax paid on the sale of an inheritance share

Nuno Cunha Barnabé, a partner at Abreu Advogados specialising in Tax Law, explains, in statements to Jornal de Negócios, that taxpayers who have been taxed on the sale of their share of an inheritance, under personal income tax (IRS), can request an official review and a refund of the tax paid.

The Supreme Administrative Court dismissed the notion of capital gains in the sale of an inheritance share through a ruling published in May. The ruling states that the sale of an inheritance portion – that is, the share of the estate corresponding to each heir – “does not constitute a burdensome transfer of real rights over immovable property” and, therefore, any gains resulting from such a transfer are not subject to personal income tax (IRS).

Nuno Cunha Barnabé affirms that the taxpayer may request a refund under these circumstances and may go back “at least three years”, although the exact time limit is debatable, depending on whether or not it is considered that there was an error attributable to the tax authorities. “What matters here is creating a mechanism that can open the way to legal action,” he warns.