The European Commission has referred Spain to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) over discriminatory gift and inheritance tax rules. Spain’s current provisions on gift and inheritance tax require non-residents to pay higher taxes than Spanish residents. Inheritance and gift tax in Spain are regulated at both state level and at the level of autonomous communities. The autonomous communities' legislation grants residents a number of tax benefits that, in practice, allow them to pay much lower taxes than non-residents. The referral to the ECJ follows requests made by the Commission to Spain in May 2010 and February 2011 to take action to ensure that its gift and inheritance tax rules are in compliance with EU rules on this matter.

The Commission press release on the proceedings can be found here.