Your will chose English law. That decided who inherits, not who taxes.
Most British expatriates in Europe who have made a will in the last decade were asked one question by the lawyer drawing it up: do you want to choose English law to govern your estate?
Most said yes, and for most that was right. It is also where a good many people stopped thinking about their estate, having been told, correctly, that they had dealt with something important. They had, but it was narrower than it sounded.
What the election actually does
The choice comes from the EU Succession Regulation, Regulation (EU) No 650/2012, known in practice as Brussels IV. Article 22(1) runs to a single sentence:
A person may choose as the law to govern his succession as a whole the law of the State whose nationality he possesses at the time of making the choice or at the time of death.
That decides which country's rules say who inherits. For a British national living in Spain, France, Portugal or Italy it matters a great deal, because those countries reserve fixed shares of an estate for children and certain other relatives whether the will says so or not. Electing English law is how you step outside forced heirship and leave your estate as you intended.
What it does not do
The regulation answers this itself, in the second sentence of Article 1(1):
This Regulation shall apply to succession to the estates of deceased persons. It shall not apply to revenue, customs or administrative matters.
Tax is a revenue matter. The election changes who inherits, and leaves untouched who taxes, at what rate, and on what. Those stay with the national tax law of the country where the assets sit and where the people concerned are resident, exactly as they were before the will was signed. Your will answers the first question and is silent on the second.
Where the gap opens widest
The gap opens widest in Spain, which is why we have set the Spanish position out separately and in full. Spanish inheritance tax is charged on the person receiving rather than on the estate, so the same estate produces different bills depending on who inherits. It is also largely devolved, which makes the region you live in worth more to the outcome than almost any other single fact. And there is no inheritance tax treaty between the United Kingdom and Spain: the UK has estate tax treaties with ten territories and Spain is not among them (HMRC).
The usual assumption that a treaty will tidy up any overlap has nothing to work with. France, Portugal and Italy each tax succession under their own rules, and an Article 22 election reaches the tax in none of them either.
Who settles which part
The will belongs with a notary or a lawyer qualified in the country where you live. That is their work and it is not ours.
What the tax then does to the estate is a planning question: where the assets sit, which of them are taxed where, who is due to receive what, and how a pension is treated when it is assessed under two systems at once.
That is the part we work on, alongside your notary rather than instead of them.
Downloadable Guide: Spain: The Decisions, in the Order They Arrive sets out the Spanish position in full, in the order the decisions actually arrive. No charge, and no obligation.
If any of this touches your own position and you would like to talk it through,
This article is information and general education only. It is not tax, legal or investment advice, and it does not establish any advisory relationship. Succession rules, tax rates and reliefs depend on individual circumstances and change over time; a qualified professional in the relevant country should assess any specific situation. Paratus Wealth does not provide services to, and does not market to, residents of the United Kingdom.
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