Habitual residence and a choice of law

On a death with a cross-border element, Regulation 650/2012 as a rule points to the habitual residence at the moment of death for the applicable inheritance law. That is the starting point you note in the file, not a conclusion the software draws. There can be an exception: a valid choice in a will for the law of the nationality of the deceased. Only those two points belong in this record. You note where this person actually lived, and whether the will contains such a choice. You do not bring in further articles from the Regulation. You do not fill in further provisions yourself. The notary qualifies whether the residence and the choice hold.

The Regulation does not decide on the inheritance tax. Inheritance law and the levy remain two questions. Belgium and Germany can still levy tax, even if the inheritance law lies somewhere else. Note that the tax question is open. Do not convert it from the Dutch table because the residence happened to lie in one of those countries, and also not because it did not lie there. The country of the habitual residence goes on a line of its own, with the source: a registration, a tenancy contract, a statement by the family that you still have to test. For as long as the source is thin, the qualification stays empty. You do not yourself write that the habitual residence is fixed because someone was often there. The notary reads the facts. You keep them.

Read the will for a choice of law before you fill in the field. No choice found after reading is something other than the will not yet having been read. In the second case the field stays empty and there is a task. In the first case you note that you have not seen a choice for the national law in this document, with the date of the reading and which document you read. Do not freely take the sentence over into your own words that stretch the choice. You note the national statute that would have been chosen only as the will names it. A passport alone is not a choice of law. Nationality and choice are two fields. The notary says whether the choice is valid. The file keeps the document and the open question.

Ervazo records the residence facts and the question of a choice of law beside the will. Ervazo records and calculates as a worksheet. The worksheet does not designate the applicable inheritance law and levies no tax. That is not advice. It files nothing and it pays nothing. Regulation 650/2012 is not explained further here than the habitual residence and the possible choice for the national law. The program does not fill in an article and it does not decide whether Belgium or Germany levies. The notary qualifies. The worksheet does not calculate with a legal system as if it were a rate. Until the qualification is there, the fields remain a list of facts with sources, not a judgment.