Portugal and Cyprus do not tax a child who inherits a Golden Visa home

When a Vietnamese parent who bought a home through a Golden Visa route dies, the child who inherits it owes Portugal or Cyprus no tax on the inheritance under the texts read in October 2026. Parent and child are both Vietnamese nationals, tax resident in Vietnam and not resident where the home stands. Greece, Malta and Spain each charge, on different values and with different reliefs.

Greece: a scale above EUR 150,000

Greek inheritance tax is codified in the Property Tax Code, Law 5219/2025, published on 18 July 2025, which repealed articles 1 to 122 of the old inheritance code of Law 2961/2001. Property situated in Greece is taxable “whether it belongs to nationals or to foreigners”, and the heir pays.

A child falls in Category A. The scale printed in the gazette charges nothing on the first EUR 150,000, 1% on the next EUR 150,000, 5% up to EUR 600,000 and 10% above that. Real estate is valued on the objective-value system, from starting prices set in advance by zone.

A minor child, like a spouse, receives a EUR 400,000 exemption instead of the zero band. The first-home exemption is limited to Greek citizens and citizens of the European Union and the European Economic Area, so a Vietnamese heir falls outside it. The return is due within one year where the parent died abroad or the heir lived abroad.

Portugal: an exemption for children, and a report

Portugal has no separate inheritance tax. Free transfers of property situated in Portugal are charged under stamp duty, item 1.2 of the general table, at 10% of the tax-registered value.

Article 6 of the Stamp Duty Code exempts spouses, descendants and ascendants from that item, with no condition on nationality or residence in the text.

Article 26 obliges the estate administrator and the beneficiary to report a transfer on death to the tax office by the end of the third month after the month of death. The duty applies to transfers “subject to” the tax, which indicates that an exempt transfer is still reported.

A lifetime gift is treated differently. Item 1.1 charges 0.8% on acquiring real estate “by gift”, and the exemption for children covers item 1.2 only; this indicates that the 0.8% would still apply to a gift of a home to a child.

Spain: state rules, or the region’s

Spain ended its investor residence route on 3 April 2025: Organic Law 1/2025 emptied articles 63 to 67 of Law 14/2013 from that date and left earlier applications and valid visas on their old terms. Spanish inheritance tax follows where the home stands, not the visa, so it applies to a home bought under that route and to any other home in Spain.

A non-resident heir pays Spain’s inheritance and gift tax on property situated in Spain. Real estate is valued at its cadastral reference value, and the return is due within six months of death.

Under the state rules in Law 29/1987, a child aged 21 or over deducts EUR 15,956.87, and a younger child up to EUR 47,858.59. The scale then runs from 7.65% to 34%, multiplied for a child by a coefficient of 1.0 to 1.2 depending on the heir’s existing wealth.

Since July 2021, where the deceased was not resident in Spain, the heirs have the right to apply the rules of the autonomous community holding the greatest value of the Spanish estate. Regional reductions and rates can replace the state figures; no regional law was read for this comparison.

A municipal tax on the increase in value of urban land may also fall due on a death. Municipalities may grant up to 95% relief on transfers to descendants.

Malta: a 5% duty on the declaration

Malta has no tax called inheritance tax. An heir must declare inherited Maltese real estate by public deed within six months. Under the Duty on Documents and Transfers Act, that declaration bears duty of EUR 5 for every EUR 100 or part of EUR 100 of the property’s value, which the Rules made under the Act fix at its open-market value at the date of death.

The reliefs for children turn on the house having been the parent’s ordinary residence. Where it was, the first EUR 35,000 is disregarded and 3.5% applies up to EUR 200,000 if the heir lives there; a transfer to descendants is exempt if the deed is made within one year.

The texts read do not settle whether a home kept for a Golden Visa counts as a non-resident parent’s ordinary residence. If it does not, the reliefs fall away and the 5% applies in full.

Cyprus: no estate duty since 2000

Law 74(I)/2000 repealed the Estate Duty Laws for anyone who died on or after 1 January 2000, and the old law applies only to earlier deaths. The Land Registry charges no transfer fee for registering title acquired by a legal heir, whether under a will or on intestacy.

Under the 2000 law on deceased persons’ estates, the legal representatives must file a statement of assets and liabilities with the tax department within six months of death.

Vietnam: its own exemption for parents and children

Every figure above is what the country where the home stands charges. Vietnam’s Personal Income Tax Law 109/2025/QH15, in force since 1 July 2026, exempts income from inheriting real estate between parents and children.

The clause contains no words limiting it to property in Vietnam, unlike the next exemption, which covers only a sole dwelling in Vietnam; this indicates that it also reaches a home abroad. An earlier article examines the wider rules on assets inherited abroad.

What this article has not established

The Greek text read is the gazette version of 18 July 2025. Whether later laws amended the inheritance articles of the Property Tax Code was not checked.

No Spanish regional law was opened, so no regional figure is given. Whether a Maltese home held for a Golden Visa counts as the parent’s ordinary residence, and the current text of Cyprus’s 2000 law on estates, were not established.

How Greek and Maltese tax offices apply the minor-child and residence-based reliefs to heirs from outside the European Union was not checked. Nor was it checked whether the Portuguese tax office applies the 0.8% charge to a gift to a child. Probate, notarial and court costs are outside this comparison.

No official position was found on whether Vietnam’s exemption for inherited real estate reaches a home abroad.