Although the country does not have a unified Inheritance or Succession Law, the transfer of assets after death is regulated by the Civil Code and by tax and administrative regulations which, together, define rights, obligations and procedures.
SANTO DOMINGO. – The Dominican Republic does not have a Law of Heirs or Successions that concentrates in a single normative body all the rules applicable to the transmission of assets after the death of a person.
Instead, the inheritance regime rests on a dispersed normative system, whose central axis is the Dominican Civil Code, dating from 1884, a legacy of the Napoleonic model, which responds to the legal logic of the 19th century, complemented by tax and registry legislation.
From a legal standpoint, inheritance automatically begins upon the death of the estate holder, as established by Article 718 of the Civil Code, which states that inheritances begin upon the death of the person from whom they are derived. From that moment on, the assets, rights, and obligations that are not extinguished by death become part of the estate.
When there is no valid will, or it does not dispose of all the assets, the law applies the rules of intestate succession and it is the Civil Code, in its articles 723 and 731, that establishes the legal order of the heirs, based on kinship.
Descendants, primarily children, are first in line to inherit. In their absence, the law calls upon ascendants and collateral relatives, and ultimately the State. The surviving spouse has recognized rights, although their share depends on the family composition and the existing property regime, making inheritance a technical process that requires legal interpretation.
This legal order is not a customary practice, but an express provision of the Civil Code, which determines who is called to inherit and in what hierarchy, when there is no express will of the deceased.
When there is a will, the succession is governed by the wishes of the deceased, but with limits, since the Civil Code itself protects the figure of the reserved heirs, establishing that a part of the estate cannot be freely disposed of when there are descendants with the right to a minimum portion of the inheritance, a limitation that is part of the historical core of Dominican civil law.
This civil framework is overlaid by the inheritance tax regime, administered by the General Directorate of Internal Taxes (DGII). Law 2569 establishes the inheritance and gift tax, the deadlines for declaring the inheritance, the permitted deductions, and the consequences of non-compliance.
This law does not define who inherits, but it does condition the process through tax obligations whose fulfillment is essential for the subsequent regularization of property ownership.
Although modifications have been approved in recent years to alleviate the tax burden in certain cases, the inheritance tax remains a central element of the process.
In practice, the absence of a unified law forces heirs, lawyers, notaries, and real estate developers to navigate different rules to complete an inheritance, from determining the heirs to the formal transfer of real estate.
Due to this legal fragmentation, inheritances are often perceived as complex and lengthy processes, even when regulated by current laws.
At the same time, it also reveals a characteristic that marks the entire Dominican inheritance system and that will be addressed in the next installment.
