Inheritance Law in Iran – Tax Laws Inheritance

Inheritance Law in Iran – A Road Map

inheritance law in Iran is based on the Code of Civil Law. Most of the procedures for inheritance claims are articulated in the Non-Litigious Jurisdiction Act. There are other laws and regulations that concerns inheritance claims as collateral.

 

An outlook for the inheritance Law in Iran

Iranian Law of inheritance is relatively rich, both in terms of rules and procedures. In terms of the rules, i.e., the formula of division of inheritance, minorities are subject to the specific regulation based on their religion, for example Gregory Armenians have to look up the “Regulation of the personal status of Gregory Armenians”, Articles 62-73, for the purpose of handling their inheritance issues. This regulation is based on the Constitution, Principle 12. Foreign nationals are subject to their own national laws as well. On the other hand, Iranian nationals who are domiciled overseas are subject to the Iranian law of inheritance. These provisions are set down in the Code of Civil Law (CCL), Articles 6 and 7.

The main body of inheritance rules are articulated in the Code of Civil Law (CCL), Articles 861-955. “Non-Litigious Jurisdiction Act” (NLJA), Articles 162-275, provides procedures on how to record the properties of the deceased’s person, how to keep them under lock and key, the competent court, settlement of the debts and obligations of the deceased person, and administration of the properties before handing them over to the inheritors. In the next part we address some of the most important provisions thereof.

 

Basic Principles of the Inheritance Law in Iran

The two aforementioned laws include the main rules governing inheritance issues in Iran. there are also some other relevant rules and regulations which we look into them in the next parts. Here we only mention some of the main lines to give you a perspective about the matter. As you already know, inheritance issues are liable to complications and one has to be meticulous when calculating the equations in this field. So, without further ado, let’s check them out.

 

A) basic rules of division: from CCL

1. cause of the inheritance:

There are two main categories of relatives, namely blood relatives and relatives-in-law. Relatives-in-law are considered relatives because of the marriage. Parents and siblings and their offspring, aunts and uncles and cousins are all blood relatives. Actually, the only inheritor in the second category is the spouse of the deceased person, who is an inheritor all the time.

 

2. groups of inheritors

Law prioritizes potential inheritors into three groups. These groups are limited to the blood relatives and the only relative-in-law inheritor, namely the spouse of the deceased’s person, joins the winning inheritor group. Hence, a wife or husband is an inheritor all the time. Only one alive member and that’s enough for an upper group to be marked as winner; and only the winner takes all the fruits in the plate. These groups are:

• parents and offspring.
• Siblings and grandparents and their offspring.
• Aunts and uncles and their offspring.

 

3. offspring: legitimate or natural?

When it comes about the inheritance issues, legitimacy of children is a key. it’s been two decades since Supreme Court of Iran accepted legal duties to be imposed on the natural father of the children, but in the inheritance law it’s a concrete rule and there’s no way to ignore it.

 

4. Scope of the will

Division of the properties has to be carried out according to the law and the will shall not change the law mechanism for more than the one third of the whole properties’ value, unless the interested inheritors pronounce their permission (Art. 843 of the CCL).

 

B) procedures and formalities: from NLJA

The NLJA provisions on the competent body for managing the deceased person’s properties has to be read with the relevant provisions of the “Law on the Dispute Settlement Councils”. According to the Article 9 of this Law, the Council is entrusted with the recording of the deceased person’s properties and keeping them under lock and key. The Council has also the authority to issue the legal heir certificate. So, Articles 163-5 of the NLJA are only authentic on the matter of territorial jurisdiction.

The NLJA also provides rules for settlement of the debts and obligations of the deceased person. Five categories are prioritized in the Article 226. According to the Article 232, lawsuits against the deceased person have to be brought against her inheritors. All debts due at a future time must be considered as due.

 

Tax Laws Concerning inheritance Issues in Iran

The law governing the tax issues in this field is the “Direct Taxation Act”, amended on August 10, 2015. Articles 17-43 of the Law stipulate provisions for the taxation of inheritance properties. Article 24 excludes some items from the scope of the law, namely pensions, termination’s benefits, money paid by insurance companies, etc. a noticeable number of these articles got eliminated by the amendment law of 2015.

 

Other Laws and Regulations Concerning inheritance Law in Iran

There are quite a number of other laws and regulations that refer to the inheritance properties or provide rules for inheritors or stipulate some provisions to preserve third parties’ interests. Here, we name two important instruments that one has to keep in mind when dealing with inheritance issues. first of all, we have to mention the “Law on Registration of Deeds and Landed Properties”.

Regardless of some formalities, Article 106 has criminalized the act of an inheritor who steps up to register her predecessor’s landed properties as hers, in spite of the fact that she knows those properties had no longer belonged to the deceased person. Another law in this field, is the regulation of “enforcement of the enforceable official documents and the procedure of disputes over the enforcement operation”. According to the article 7 of the regulation, if one of the inheritors pay the debts of the deceased person, could further charge against the other inheritors.

 

Finally, a Road Map for inheritance Law in Iran?

In this article we tried to cover all significant elements of the Iranian inheritance rules and regulations. Due to a long-standing judicial practice and even more remarkable, a detailed book of law, cases struggling with complications are really rare. With a mind-set of the step-by-step course of actions, inheritance claims in Iran are easy to run. Just don’t forget to look up subtle rules in the CCL, which is the fundamental law in this ground.