Estate inventory meeting and deed of estate inventory – what do they mean?

An inventory of the deceased person’s property is presented and a written deed is prepared at a meeting arranged for the purpose. The deed is a complete list of the decedent’s assets and debts left behind. In addition, the deed of estate inventory also contains information about all the inheritors.

Inheritors i.e., shareholders of the estate, are the decedent’s children or grandchildren and any universal beneficiaries under a will. In addition, the surviving spouse is a shareholder until the property is distributed.If there are no direct heirs and the deceased did not have a will, the surviving spouse is the estate’s only shareholder. If there is no surviving spouse, the following persons are regarded as shareholders of the estate:

  1. The decedent’s parents
  2. The decedent’s brothers or sisters if neither one of their parents is alive
  3. The children or grandchildren of those of the decedent’s brothers or sisters who are deceased

If the deceased person was not married to their partner, the partner is not a shareholder of the estate unless the deceased had a will in which the partner is included.

Deed of estate inventory must always be made

The estate inventory must be completed within 3 months of the date of death.

A deed of estate inventory is always required, even when the decedent did not leave any assets and property behind, or even if the estate only has debts. After the estate’s debts are recorded in the deed of estate inventory, the inheritors’ responsibility for any of the estate’s debts will cease.

The deed of estate inventory is both a tax return and a document that is required by the bank and different public authorities for taking care of matters related to the estate.

Who must arrange the estate inventory meeting?

The person who is best informed of the decedent’s wealth is responsible for the estate’s inventory. This normally means the spouse or one of the children.

It is recommended that a professional who has experience in preparing deeds of estate inventory and taking care of family law matters and tax matters is called in to help with the matters of the estate.

Deeds of estate inventory are drawn up by banks, law firms, legal aid offices, etc. as a service. They can also put together all the documents that are necessary, relating to the decedent’s assets, propertycase and debts for you.

If you prepare the deed of estate inventory yourself, make sure you have collected all the information and documents.

Checklist before the inventory meeting

Ask for the following documentation well in advance of the meeting:

If further documentation is needed for the estate inventory meeting,

You are entitled to receive information if you are

  • The surviving spouse
  • An inheritor
  • A beneficiary of the will
  • An administrator or executor of the estate appointed by the district court.

Extended time for the estate inventory

You can request an extension to arrange the meeting at a later date, if you submit a request for extension of time within 3 months of the date of death. If the final day of the time limit is a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday, you must submit the request by the last business day before that day. We grant extensions for a justified reason only.

Please note that if you get an extension of time to arrange the meeting, the written deed of estate inventory must still be sent to the Tax Administration within one month from the date when the meeting is held.

Inheritor or person reporting the estate

  1. Request an extension of time in MyTax
  2. After login, go to My tax matters and select Manage your tax matters.
  3. Select Tax matters — Activities relating to inheritance tax — Extended time for estate inventory or submitting the deed of estate inventory.

Representative of a bank, law firm or similar organisation

  1. Request an extension of time in MyTax
  2. After logging in, go to Reporting and requesting information in a limited scope, and click Report or request information in a limited scope.

If you cannot submit an online request

If you do not have access to MyTax, complete a paper form to ask for extension of time (in Finnish and Swedish).

Remember to include your contact information and to sign the form.

Deed of estate inventory – what facts are required?

The deed of estate inventory is a complete list of the decedent’s property and debt left behind, and it also contains information about all the inheritors (shareholders of the estate). In addition, the deed also serves the purpose of a tax return because the Tax Administration refers to the deed’s information when assessing inheritance taxes for each inheritor.

However, the Tax Administration has no template or form for a deed of estate inventory. For preparing the deed, you can use the templates available online and in bookshops.

Include the following

  • inheritors, surviving spouse, beneficiaries under the terms of a will – you can check who are among the inheritors
  • Each individual’s postal address and personal identity code
  • The name of the person reporting the estate, and the names of two trustees who must sign the deed
  • The contact person’s name, address and telephone number
  • The relationship of every inheritor or beneficiary to the deceased person
  • If a partner with whom the decedent lived together is a shareholder of the estate, does either of the following statements apply?
    • The unmarried partner had previously been married to the decedent
    • The unmarried partner and the decedent have (or have had) a child together
  • The assets and liabilities of the decedent on the day of death
    • If the decedent had a spouse who had died earlier and no distribution of matrimonial assets had been conducted after their spouse’s death, include the value of the property and debts of the decedent’s deceased spouse in the deed of estate inventory. The values of the property (e.g. apartment or investments) must be reported according to the values on the date of death of the spouse that lived longer, i.e. the decedent.
  • The assets and liabilities of the surviving spouse on their day of death
  • Was there a marital right to each other’s property between the decedent and the surviving spouse?
  • Will the surviving spouse hand over any of the property, to pay adjustment to the heirs of the spouse who died first?
  • Does the surviving spouse keep the right of possession to the house or apartment that was their home?
  • The will and any claims for lawful portions
  • Any advancements made by the decedent or by the surviving spouse
  • Gifts that an heir or a beneficiary of the will received during the past three years prior to death – give the date, value and description of the gift
  • Insurance indemnities paid to the estate or to a beneficiary on account of the death – fill in the beneficiaries’ names and the amounts they received
  • A student loan of the decedent – the value to be recorded for the deed of inventory is €0. Estates of deceased persons are not under obligation to pay back a government-guaranteed loan.

More information on valuation of property

More information on indemnities received from an insurance company

More information on rights of possession related to property

Include the following deductions in the deed of estate inventory

  • Funeral expenses
  • Expenses directly related to the inventory, the deed, and the meeting
  • The decedent’s debts during lifetime

Examples of debts include

  • home loan, hire-purchase debt, credit card debt
  • tax debts, as assessed during the decedent’s lifetime
  • water, electricity and telephone bills
  • medical expenses left unpaid

Add photocopies of the following documents

  • Will and prenuptial agreement.
  • The estate’s deed of distribution if the estate’s distribution is completed by this time.
  • Deed of partition or deed of estate distribution, if the spouse died earlier and if distribution of matrimonial property and the estate was carried out between the decedent and the deceased spouse’s heirs.
  • Documentation to indicate who will handle the estate’s other tax affairs.
  • Documentation to indicate whether you will pursue the operation of agricultural farm or business that the decedent left behind, and you request an extension of time to pay your inheritance tax

Please submit the above to the Tax Administration as scanned or photocopied documents, not original documents. Keep the original documents for yourself.

You do not have to enclose or attach the following documents:

  • Bank statements indicating current balances in various bank accounts
  • Receipts concerning various expenses the estate has paid
  • Any account of family relations in the form of extracts from the population register
  • Photocopies of another deed of estate inventory

If necessary, we may ask you to provide further information.

Keep the original deed of estate inventory

We recommend that you make several signed (original) copies of the estate inventory deed. You will need the original deed whenever you need to determine who can represent the estate. Another situation where you need it is when you deal with the estate’s bank matters or when you are having immoveable property registered officially under the estate’s name.

Keep the original receipts enclosed with the original deed that stays with the heirs.

We recommend that you keep the receipts and other documents for a period of 6 years after the end of the tax year. Tax year is the decedent’s year of death. You can save the receipts and documents in electronic format, provided that you can print them on paper, if needed.

Make a photocopy of the deed and send it to the Tax Administration

We recommend that you and the other shareholders agree at the inventory meeting on who will send the deed and its enclosures to the Tax Administration. The deed must be delivered to the Tax Administration within 1 month from the estate inventory meeting.

One photocopied or scanned example is sufficient. After one person has sent the deed, inheritance tax assessment can be conducted for all shareholders.

How to submit the deed of estate inventory to the Tax Administration

Deeds of inventory not sent in time may cause a late-filing penalty or punitive tax increase to be imposed

How to add information to a deed of inventory when the deed is already filed with the Tax Administration

Frequently asked questions

The Digital and Population Data Service Agency’s (often called the “DVV”) confirmation is not required. However, you can ask the DVV for certification of the personal information, recorded in the estate inventory deed, concerning estate shareholders and the surviving spouse.

Further information about the DVV's certification

The Tax Administration stores the deed of estate inventory and its enclosures in an electronic format. When the deed is placed in electronic storage, the paper documents are destroyed.

Deeds of estate inventory are confidential. However, photocopies may be obtained for a justified reason. Photocopies may be subject to a charge. The Tax Administration’s price list on documents retrieved from the archive (in Finnish and Swedish)

How to submit a request for a photocopy

You are an inheritor or you are the person reporting the estate

You represent a bank, law firm or a similar organisation

If you cannot use MyTax or the e-service

Complete Form 3627 to request a copy of the deed of estate inventory

Photocopies of deeds from before 1994

If the deed of estate inventory was drawn up before 1994, you should contact the District Court of the deceased person’s final municipality of domicile to ask for a photocopy. Contact information for District Courts in Finland: oikeus.fi

The Tax Administration keeps permanent records of deeds of inventory, including enclosures, drawn up in 1994 and later. For deeds drawn up before 1994, the archival period at the Tax Administration is 30 years.

The Tax Administration can only give instructions for what is required of the deed of estate inventory for purposes of inheritance taxes and submittal of the necessary tax return. If you plan to arrange the meeting for estate inventory with people participating over a remote connection, make sure that the deed you draw up will also meet the requirements of other parties that will need the estate inventory deed later, such as banks and the Digital and Population Data Services Agency.

As long as the deed meets the following requirements, it can be processed at the Tax Administration even if the meeting was conducted remotely:

  1. The deed must contain all required personal details on the shareholders of the estate, the beneficiaries of the will, and information on property and debts of the deceased and the surviving spouse (including the deed’s required enclosures), and information on the relationships under family law.
  2. The deed must contain an account of where, when and how the meeting was held, who were present and therefore aware of the matters discussed, and who presented matters for discussion.
  3. The deed must include declarations made under oath, and certificates from the person reporting the estate and from the trustees.

The children and grandchildren i.e. the direct heirs are entitled to receive their lawful share of the inheritance even if the decedent left their property to someone else in their will. The lawful share is half of the inheritance the heir would have received if there were no will.

If you are an heir entitled to a lawful share, you need to turn to the will’s beneficiary (beneficiaries) and present your claim to them. You must make the claim within 6 months of when you were first informed of the will.

Forms

Key terms:


Page last updated 10/24/2024