How is inheritance, especially of farm land and real estate inheritance, handled in your countries?

2 comments

1. In my country there is a 1,35% tax on inheritance of property but is is calculated at a much lower value than market value. Basically nothing. If one dies without a will, his/her estate will be divided evenly among direct family. Only real estate, cash and bonds are taxed, objects or stocks even if high value are not.

   Owning farmland does require working it or leasing it. But it’s complicated, I don’t know all the rules regarfing farmland tbf.

2. There is a tax for inheriting and owning property. It greatly varies between regions. Some have maintained medieval privileges and pay almost nothing. Some are very taxing, making rejecting an inheritance common, widening the divide between the haves and have-nots.

   The Napoleonic wave of law-making messed most of Europe but my region was particularly affected, as we were far removed from the old barbaric Frankish traditions inherited by the French. The eldest **daughter** inherited the house and property. The husband, moved in, either to help work the land or with earnings from another trade (fishing, smiting, …). The family name was kept matrilineally. This made it one of the few territories in Europe and the world effectively a **matrilocal** society. Younger sons generally remained unmarried to help work the property.

   This has been mostly phased out, but the prominence of women in society has remained quite significant in the rural world (away from the French modernities of the cities with relegated women). Even when confronted by modern legal-dealings, the woman will tell the husband what to say when dealing with 3rd parties.