Among the inescapable facts in life, something which everyone shares regardless of status, race, sex or creed, is death. A person may leave properties (or liabilities) upon death, so a discussion on the basic concepts on estate proceedings is in order.
- Inheritance – Inheritance includes all the property, rights and obligations of a person which are not extinguished by his death. (Civil Code, Art. 776)
- Testate Estate – An estate of a deceased person which is settled or to be settled with a valid last will and testament.
- Intestate Estate – An estate of a deceased person without a will. [See Extrajudicial Settlement of Estate]
- Will – An act whereby a person is permitted, with the formalities prescribed by law, to control to a certain degree the disposition of his estate. (Civil Code, Art. 783) [See Basic concepts in last will and testament; Notarial wills; and Holographic wills]
- Testator – The deceased person who made a last will and testament. (Civil Code, Art. 775)
- Probate – A special proceeding to establish the validity of a will. Probate is mandatory, which means that no will passes either real or personal property unless it is proved and allowed in a proper court.
- Reprobate – A special proceeding to establish the validity of a will previously proved in a foreign country.
- Legatee – One who is given personal property through a will. (Civil Code, Art. 782)
- Devisee – One who is given real property in a will. (Civil Code, Art. 782)
- Executor – The person named in the will who is entrusted to implement its provisions. (Rules of Court, Rule 78)
- Executrix – A female executor.
- Administrator – The person entrusted with the care, custody and management of the estate of a decedent until the estate is partitioned and distributed to the heirs, legatees and devisees, if any. (Rules of Court, Rule 78)
- Administratrix – A female administrator.
- Special proceedings – A remedy by which a party seeks to establish a status, a right, or a particular fact. (Rules of Court, Rule 1, Sec. 3 [c]). Among the subject matters of special proceedings are escheat and settlement of estate of deceased persons. (Rules of Court, Rule 72, Sec. 1)
- Escheat – A proceeding whereby the state, by virtue of its sovereignty, steps in and claims the real or personal property of a person who dies intestate leaving no heir. In the absence of a lawful owner, a property is claimed by the state to forestall an open “invitation to self-service by the first comers”. (Republic vs. CA, G.R. No. 143483)
- Estate tax – A tax on the transfer of the net estate of the decedent. (Tax Reform Act of 1997, Sec. 84)
- Gross estate – The total value of all property belonging to the decedent at the time of death, wherever situated.
- Net estate – Gross estate less allowable deductions and exemptions.
can a person such as an heir offer his future inheritance a contribution to an entity such as
a partnership? is that a valid contribution?
Lawenthusiast, sorry I didn’t see your post. For whatever this is worth, please check Article 1347 of the Civil Code which reads in part: “No contract may be entered into upon future inherintance except in cases expressly authorized by law.”
Tina, a Revocable Living Trust is, well, a trust, which concept is partly governed by Articles 1440 to 1457 of the Philippine Civil Code. Just to be clear, please don’t consider this as an advice on your concerns, as no legal opinion is dispensed in this Forum. Good luck with your research.
I am not a lawyer and I need help on my research on making my Living Revocable Trust. Is a Living Revocable Trust valid in the Philippines?
Or only a Will is honored in the Philippine system?
base on sec. 20 of Bill of Rights that no person shall be imprisoned for debt or non payment of a poll tax…
does it mean that nobody would be imprisoned for non payment of real or property tax…
thanks =)
Pax,
Let’s make this more interesting. A tax is not an ordinary debt, wherein you could not be imprisoned. In general, non-payment of taxes is tax evasion, which has a criminal penalty. The exception provided in Sec. 20 is a “poll tax”, which is definitely not an income tax or, as you mentioned, real property tax. Since I understand that you’re a PolSci student and had studied the Local Government Code (or am I wrong? =), could you please tell me if a person who does not pay real property tax may be imprisoned? =)
Actually, we’re still studying the introduction to constitutional law and we’re focusing on Bill of Rights…
I have no idea as what the difference between poll tax, income tax and real property tax.
That question was being asked during our exam last week, and no result yet, if the not paying real property tax could not be imprisoned…
good day, i just want to ask if there is a penalty for not paying the estate tax immediately after the death of the owner of the property. my father died last 1993 leaving two parcel of lands, we pay the real property tax yearly but we are not awre of the esttae tax until we decided to finally sell the parcels of land this month.
Situation:
My grandfather & grandmother owned a lot & house. They had 10 children. The children grew up and some moved away. The house burned down. Another house was built on the lot by the 4 unmarried children of my grandparents.
Questions:
What is common and what is not common in the estate?
Who has the right to take tenants in the house only?
What are the Philippine statutes/laws that define these?
My brother, a US citizen, lived in the Philippines for ~20 years. He died October 2007 with his domicile in the Philippines. His widow was named executrix in his will. I am helping her to get a letters testamentary. We have been told that this can only be done in the jurisdiction of the deceased’s residence. We live in the US. She has emphezema and is on oxygen. Is there some way we can get the letters testamentary without having to fly to the Philippines? Thank you.
how about if the liability of the deceased is a credit card obligation? how does this get settled? does the card companies still have the rights to collect for it?
thank you.
can a child who was registered as a natural child by simulated birth in the birth registration certificate be considered a natural child and therefore a legitimate child and mandatory heir of the adoptive parents? Or her being a “natural legitimate” child, since it was falsified documents invalid from the very beginning? will this have any bearing on future inheritance of the property of the adoptve parents? thanks!
What documents are required,apart from the heir’s affidavit, for the extrajudicial estate settlement proceedings?
hi fairlady,
i’m new to e-legal forum. please allow me to give you some points on your querry.
normally, when filing an extrajudicial settlement you need the following:
the birth certificates of the heirs and their the taxpayers identification numbers assuming all the heirs are adults
of course you will also be needing certified true copies of all transfer certificates of titles of all lands owned and registered under dissidents name. aside from that you will also need certified copies of tax declaration of said real properties.
for further details, the best government office to get info on this is the bureau of internal revenue where you will be filing your estate tax.
be warned though that filing curing all the required documents is a long, time consuming, and tedious.
you may need a lawyer or an accountant to file the estate tax return.
have a good day.
i accidentally click submit without proofreading the contents.
correction:
*be warned though that securing all the required documents is a long, time consuming, and tedious process. so you need to be patient on this.
you wil also be needing marriage contract if the dissident is married.
taxpayers identification numbers are need for heirs that don’t have TIN yet. otherwise you may fill out a form and the BIR will issue one for them.
you may check http://www.bir.gov.ph for detailed list of requirements.
i hope you find this helpful
have a good day madam.
My husband’s grandparents left a parcel of land to my mother-in-law, and two of her sisters. She and one of the heirs has since passed away. The problem began when the surviving heir transferred said property in their name without advising us. When confronted about it, she said not to worry since she did it just to safeguard her rights and showed us a document that she & her husband made stating that they are willing to give 1/3 of the property to each of the surviving families of her deceased sisters. What options do we have to safeguard our claim to said property?
Hello. I am a PT student and i am taking 3 units of Political Science. I was required to do a presentation about Bill of Rights, specifically Article III, Section 20 which states that “No person shall be imprisoned for debt and non-payment of poll tax.” I have no idea on how to start my presentation. Little by little, I trying find good and well said explanations that could help me to explain it in class. Can you further explain it to me? While i was browsing around the web, I accidentally saw your site. Fortunately, I saw PAX’s question and Atty. Fred replied to it. It gave me somehow a bit of idea. I hope you could help me in my presentation which is due next wednesday. Thanks a lot. May God bless you and your office. 🙂
Beauty, I realized that the earlier discussion should be posted in another topic. So, for your question and for similar ones, please refer to this relevant discussion:
http://pnl-law.com/blog/no-one-can-be-imprisoned-for-non-payment-of-debt/
Good luck in your presentation.
my dad recently died and my siblings and i are fighting for our right to our house and lot, that is a conjugal property. unfortunately we have a bad relationship with our mom, my question is how can we protect our rights to the house so our mom will not be able to sell the house and lot?
can non payment of amilyar caused a problem in claiming a land being used by a relative? my dad gave them building permit 20 years back but now that my siblings have families and no home can we take back my parents land?
Is an American living trust valid here in the Philippines?
hi, i have a question and would appreciate if anyone can help me on this …
we are looking at purchasing a property (agricultural land) whose owners are both dead. the children (6 in all) have agreed to execute an extra judicial settlement. they have negotiated that they will pay for the capital gains tax and real estate tax but we are supposed to shoulder the estate taxes.
is this particular transaction (where real owners are already deceased), do they still need to pay for capital gains tax or is is just the estate taxes? i would appreciate your clarification on this matter.
thank you
Hi everyone,
I received a BIR letter requiring me to submit documents for estate tax clearance on properties left by my deceased father. Now Im wondering why would there be an estate tax when my mother is still alive, arent my fathers properties my moms as well? why would there be an estate tax already?
Thank you.
A lot was purchased in Sogod, Cebu by a Canadian and as required by law the real property is in the name of filipina domestic partner’s/fiance’s name. Then he constructed a House on the property. Recently he deceased and left no document that the house was his sole property nor did he have a lease agreement with the property owner for the house on the real property. Since he did not have a written agreement that separated the house from the real property, then would it be assumed by law that his construction is just an extension of the real property or he intended on leaving all that he constructed to his fiance upon his death?
Will an heir both pay the Estate Tax and the Capital Gains Tax in processing his (the heir’s) Transfer Certificate of Title?
Dear Atty. Fred,
I have a query regarding an extrajudicial partition case that my family filed. The land consists of fruit-producing trees which the respondents to the case (my first cousins), having been the caretakers thereof for around 20 years, claimed that they were the ones who planted them and are entitled to payments for the trees. Does their claim for payment for the trees have legal basis and can it be entertained in the court in an extrajudicial partition case that we filed wherein in our petition, said issues where not even discussed and only emerged when they filed their answer to the petition? It should be noted that they planted the trees without permission to the other heirs and that they have not remitted the shares of the incomes to the other heirs that is why we are demanding accounting thereof. Having said this, do you think they still have a right to claim payment for the trees existing in the portion of the land that we are claiming as our share? What if we will just say to the court that we are not interested in the trees and suggest that they should instead be cut off, can this be done? I hope I can get some answers from you, Sir!
Thank you very much!
Sincerely,
Cris
Sir,
If you were given an authority to sell by the administrator, then he died a month after, is my authority to sell still valid? I have 2 prospective buyers and wanted to close the deal. Will I go to court to know the probate proceedings? What shall I do? thanks.
Can you tell me the legal procedure to subdivide inheritance property located in the Philippines and parent( the mother ) died without a living trust or will. How do you change the name on the title if the parent has 5 children and all adult….all live in the US and one live in the PHilippines and the one who live in the Philippines wanted to sell his/her portion. Is the property should be divided by 5 ? What is the probate rules in the Philippines if there is no living trust or will? If one siblings wanted to sell his/her portion, but there is no living trust or will , does this person has the right to do that and what is legal procedure to do that, selling your portion to your siblings?
If the mother is a US citizen and has property in the Philippines, has 5 children ( all adult) 4 live in the US ( all US Citizen) and one live in the Philippines Filipino Citizen, no living trust or will, What are the rights of each children? The mother died in the US. The mother remarried, the 1st child is in the Philippienes and the half siblings all now live in the US a.. adult too. The older child ( who now live in the Philippines) wanted to sell his/her portion…What is the legal procedure to do this. Also the mother died 20 years ago, is it too late to change or probate the property in the Philippines and do they need the presence of children during the probate proceeding. I am not a lawyer, but it is common sense that the children has all the equal rights to this property , not just the eldest child….and again, because there is no living will or trust, the property is still under the mother’s name. Please help again.
Grateful if anyone can gove me information about the laws of Trusts in the Philippines.
I am interested in either studying a course on Trusts or, at the very least, finding reliable information on the net.
My attempts so far have been disappointing.
With thanks in advance,
M
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