A paper gift in the file

A paper gift (schenking op papier) is first a story. The deceased once promised an amount, without the money changing accounts at once. It is also often a debt of the deceased, but only if there was a genuine acknowledgment of debt. A story at the table is not that acknowledgment. So ask for the notarial deed before you put an amount in the estate inventory. The deed states who gave, who received and which amount was acknowledged. Without a deed it remains something the family says. Then note that the question is open, and do not yet put a debt or a gift down as a settled amount.

If the acknowledgment of debt is in the deed, the amount can belong in the estate as a debt. The estate inventory then becomes lower, and the division shifts with it. If the acknowledgment is not genuine, or if the deed is not there, the amount should not be deducted as a debt. You do not make that choice by taking the amount a child remembers. Put the deed with the line, with the date of the deed and the name of the notary. The amount outstanding on the date of death can differ from the amount in the deed if repayments were made. Check those repayments.

The same gift can also count towards the forced share (legitieme portie). The forced share (legitieme portie) does not look only at what was in the estate inventory on the date of death. Certain gifts are added to the mass. A paper gift (schenking op papier) can affect the estate inventory if the acknowledgment is genuine, and it can affect the forced share (legitieme portie). This piece calculates neither of the two. There is no full calculation and no outcome in euros. Put a task to request the deed, and only afterwards look at whether the line is a debt, a gift, or both. Until the deed is there, that task stays open.

In the file you keep the gift and the debt apart, even if they concern the same deed. The gift has a beneficiary and an amount. The debt has a creditor and an amount outstanding on the date of death. Do not mix those lines, because then the distinction disappears in the division and in the indication. Ervazo counts a debt in the estate inventory if you record it as a debt, and counts a gift where the file uses gifts for the forced share (legitieme portie). That is a calculation aid, not a judgment on whether the deed holds. The inheritance tax indication for 2026 is likewise not a judgment on deducting that debt.

For a paper gift (schenking op papier), ask for the notarial deed. Only a genuine acknowledgment of debt makes it a debt of the deceased. The same deed can also matter for the forced share (legitieme portie). This piece gives no full calculation of the estate inventory or of the share, and no interest on the debt. The inheritance tax figures for 2026 come into it only once it is settled what really belongs in the estate inventory. This is not legal advice and not tax advice. Whether the deed is a debt and whether the gift affects the forced share (legitieme portie), the notary or an adviser sets beside the deed.