Organic, but put up for adoption child and heirs

I have two children, a son and a daughter. Due to circumstances I gave my daughter up for adoption immediately after her birth. This daughter has tracked me down and I have had very good contact with her for many years. I want to inherit both my children. Is this possible and how exactly does this work? Do I need a will for this?

Your daughter is no longer legally your 'own' child due to the adoption. By law, children who have a family relationship with the parents inherit; so your son but not your daughter. Because of adoption, the family-law ties with the biological family are broken. As a result, your daughter has legally become the child of her adoptive parents. If you want her to be inherited, you will therefore have to have a will drawn up in which you designate your daughter as heir as well as your son.

This also affects the inheritance tax. Because she is no longer your 'own' child, according to the Inheritance Act, the limited exemption applies to her as standard (2021: € 2,244) and she will also have to pay the high rate of 30% from third parties on the taxed part of the inheritance.

However, there is experience with a comparable situation in which, applying the hardship clause, the State Secretary of Finance still treats an adopted child as the 'own' child of the mother who gave up the child. In that case, the normal exemption for children applies (€ 21,282 in 2021) and the rate of 10%. In this case, incidentally, there is still talk of inheritance tax; nowadays this is called inheritance tax. If you do indeed appoint your daughter as heir, it is therefore worth trying for her to invoke the hardship clause in the inheritance tax return after your death.

NB The said decision of the State Secretary is not legally binding. However, according to the principle of equality, equal cases must be treated equally. In other words: if the situation is the same / comparable to the stated situation, the State Secretary is obliged to do so.

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Mr. Nicole GoldMr. Nicole Goud is a tax specialist and lawyer. She has worked as a tax adviser for more than 15 years, worked for a number of years in the legal profession and as an author at a training company for financial services in the areas of inheritance law, family law, and tax law (inheritance and gift tax, income tax, business succession) . She also has experience in the notarial estate practice. For a number of years she has been the owner of Akto, your estate coach and more ( www.akto.nu ) and is engaged in financial and legal advice for seniors with a focus on the settlement of estates. Since March 21, 2019, she is also a RegisterExecutor.

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