Inheritance issue - how does it work across borders?

[WidowWadman]

Just looking on pointers were to ask. My aunt has died this week and it turns out that me and my brother and I are her beneficiaries.

We don't know yet how much there is (if anything), and there's complicating (I think) matters.

My aunt, my brother and I are all German nationals. My aunt lived in the Netherlands, where she had a flat, but she had also some bank accounts in Germany.

I'm a UK resident, and whilst I have a German bank account, there's precious little in there, and all my income is UK based and I pay UK taxes.

So how does the inheritance work tax wise? How do I best get it transferred to a UK account. How do I decide what type of account to open to park the money (depending how much it is)?

If it turns out that the inheritance isn't assets but only debts, how do I get out of it?

What questions do I need to ask when it comes to discuss the whole thing with the executor?

I will not be able to attend the first meeting in person, so will send my dad in my place which makes it more difficult. I know my dad has my best interests at heart, but I don't know whether he really knows how this whole shebang works either, so I'd rather give him a list of points to work through.

Thanks for the (working!) link. The whole thing is stressing me out so much.

You really need to find out whether their wish to apply German law was registered with a notary in the Netherlands. Establishing whether the will is valid under Dutch law needs to come before worrying about tax.

On a different tack... when it comes to transferring any possible money to the UK, check what tax liability rules are. I don't know anything for certain. But after I transferred in a load of money from outside EU to my UK bank account (medium-size inheritance) I was told I should have paid hefty tax on it; there was some funny loophole trick to avoid tax.