Wills and settling an estate in Portugal: a plain guide

In short: In Portugal you can make a will before a notary in two everyday forms — a testamento público (written by the notary) or a testamento cerrado (written by you, then sealed and approved by the notary) — but you can only give away your disposable share, because the spouse, children and parents are forced heirs guaranteed a slice called the legítima (Código Civil art. 2157). After a death, the estate is settled through a habilitação de herdeiros and, usually, a partilha. And the good news most people don't expect: Portugal has no separate inheritance tax — close family pays no Stamp Duty on what they inherit. CourtStairs answers Portuguese and EU succession questions like these in plain language, with citations to the Diário da República you can check yourself.

Death and paperwork are nobody's favourite combination, and Portuguese succession law adds its own vocabulary. This guide walks through it in plain English: the kinds of will, what the notary actually does, the habilitação de herdeiros that unlocks the assets, and the tax that — for most families — isn't there.

Types of will in Portugal

Portuguese law recognises a handful of will forms. Two are used in normal life; the rest are for emergencies or cross-border situations.

The público is the simplest and safest for most people: the notary holds the original, so it cannot be lost or "found" only by the wrong person. The cerrado keeps the contents private until death but puts the burden of safe-keeping on you. Note that holographic (purely handwritten, home-made) wills are not valid in Portugal — a will needs a notary to be public or closed.

Forced heirs and the disposable share

Before deciding what a will can do, you need to know what it can't. Portugal protects close family through forced heirship. The herdeiros legitimários — the surviving spouse, the descendants (children, grandchildren) and, if there are none, the ascendants (parents) — are entitled to the legítima, a reserved portion that a will cannot take away (Código Civil art. 2157).

Roughly: a spouse together with children reserves two-thirds of the estate; a spouse alone reserves one-half; one child alone reserves one-half and two or more children reserve two-thirds. Whatever is left over is the disposable share, and that is the only part you can leave to a de facto partner, a friend or a charity. This is why a will in Portugal is often about the edges of an estate, not the whole of it. For a deeper look at how the reserved portions are calculated, see our guide to forced heirship and the legítima in Portugal.

A note for unmarried couples: a unido de facto partner is not an automatic forced heir. They can inherit through the disposable share of a will, and enjoy the Stamp Duty exemption below, but the legal protection is thinner than marriage — see marriage vs. união de facto in Portugal for the full comparison.

The notary's role

The notary (notário) is central to Portuguese succession from start to finish. When you make a will, the notary either drafts it (público) or approves it (cerrado), confirms your identity and capacity, and files the record. There is a central register of wills (Registo Central de Testamentos), so after a death heirs can check whether the deceased ever made one.

After death, a notary can also carry out the habilitação de herdeiros and the deed dividing the estate (escritura de partilha). You are not forced to use a private notary for every step — the Institute of Registration and Notary (IRN) runs a one-stop Balcão das Heranças at conservatórias and Lojas de Cidadão that handles heir declarations and asset registration, often at a fixed, lower price.

Settling the estate: habilitação de herdeiros

Once someone dies, their assets don't move automatically. Banks, the conservatória (land registry) and Finanças all want proof of who the heirs are. That proof is the habilitação de herdeiros — a notarial declaration, usually made by the heirs before witnesses, naming everyone entitled to inherit and their relationship to the deceased.

1. Get the death certificateRegistered at the civil registry (conservatória do registo civil); it starts every later step.
2. Check for a willConsult the Registo Central de Testamentos to see whether the deceased left one, and of which type.
3. Report to FinançasFile the Modelo 1 do Imposto do Selo by the end of the third month after the death — even when no tax is owed.
4. Do the habilitação de herdeirosAt a notary or the IRN Balcão das Heranças, formally identifying the heirs (from about €150).
5. Divide the estate (partilha)By agreed deed if heirs agree, or through court if they don't; then register any property in the heirs' names.

Inheritance tax — or the lack of it

Here is the part that surprises newcomers. Portugal abolished its inheritance and gift tax (imposto sobre as sucessões e doações) with the 2003 property-tax reform, effective 2004. What remains is Stamp Duty (Imposto do Selo) on gratuitous transfers, charged at a flat 10% (Tabela Geral, verba 1.2).

But the exemption swallows most of the rule. Under Código do Imposto do Selo art. 6, transfers to the spouse or de facto partner, descendants (children, grandchildren) and ascendants (parents, grandparents) are exempt. So a surviving spouse and children typically pay nothing on what they inherit. The 10% bites only when assets pass to people outside that circle — siblings, nieces and nephews, friends, unrelated partners without a proven union.

Keep in mind this is only the transfer tax. The estate may still generate other costs — notary and registry fees, and ordinary taxes like IMT or capital gains if heirs later sell inherited property. But the classic "death tax" that eats into estates elsewhere in Europe simply isn't there for direct family in Portugal.

Where CourtStairs fits

Working out which will form suits you, how much of your estate you can actually leave by will, and what (if anything) your heirs will owe is exactly what CourtStairs is built for. Ask it "does my partner inherit if I die?" or "will my children pay tax on the house?" and it answers in plain language, tying each point to its source — art. 2205 and 2206 for the will forms, art. 2157 for forced heirs, and Código do Imposto do Selo art. 6 for the family exemption — so you can open the Diário da República and read the provision yourself. It works in English and Portuguese and has a free tier.

This is general information about the law, not legal advice. The right will form, the size of the legítima, the effect of the EU Succession Regulation on a foreigner's estate, and the exact tax position depend on your family, your assets and rules that change over time — so confirm anything important against the primary source or a lawyer before you act.