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Why the EU certificate shortcut does not work for Ireland, and what to do instead to unfreeze Italian bank accounts and property
An Italian bank account was frozen the morning after its holder died in Dublin. The deceased had lived in Ireland for thirty years. His family obtained a Grant of Probate from the Irish Probate Office within four months. They sent it to the Italian bank. The bank replied, politely but firmly, that it could not act on it without a notarised translation, an apostille, and evidence of the Italian succession declaration having been filed. Six months had already passed. The Italian 12-month deadline for filing the dichiarazione di successione, the compulsory Italian succession declaration, had not been met.
This scenario happens more often than it should / is more common than it ought to be. The reason is a single, widely misunderstood rule.
No. Under Article 1(3) and Recital 82 of Regulation (EU) 650/2012 on matters of succession, Ireland and Denmark exercised their right not to opt in. The United Kingdom also did not opt in and has since left the EU. The Regulation therefore does not apply to Ireland as a participating Member State. This means two things. First, Irish courts and Irish solicitors have no power to issue a European Succession Certificate (ESC). Second, when an Irish person inherits from an Italian estate, Italian law treats the succession under general private international law rules rather than the simplified Regulation 650/2012 framework.
Unlike inheriting in, say, Germany or France, where a locally-issued ESC carries direct legal effect under Article 69 of the Regulation in every participating Member State, an Irish heir has no equivalent document to hand an Italian notary or bank. No such shortcut exists.
Not in the way most guides describe. An ESC issued by a participating Member State — say a German court for a German heir — is directly enforceable in Italy under Article 69 of Regulation (EU) 650/2012. Italian banks and land registries are legally obliged to act on it. But because Ireland is outside the Regulation, no Irish authority can issue one. An Irish heir cannot present an ESC at a Verona bank. There is no certificate to carry.
What is sometimes possible — and this distinction matters — is that an Italian notary or a competent Italian court could in theory apply Regulation 650/2012 rules if another participating Member State has issued an ESC covering an Irish beneficiary named as heir. In practice, this situation is unusual. The standard Irish heir's position is straightforward: no ESC, full Italian notarial route.
Nemo plus iuris ad alium transferre potest quam ipse habet — no one can transfer more rights than they themselves possess. An Irish solicitor cannot confer on their client a procedural right that Irish law simply does not hold.
The Italian substitute for the ESC is the atto di notorietà, a notarised declaration of heirship made before an Italian notary or, in certain circumstances, before an Italian consulate. This instrument formally identifies the heirs entitled under the applicable law. Where there is a valid Italian will, the notary will also effect / complete the publication of the will (pubblicazione del testamento) before recording the succession.
Where the deceased died intestate — that is, without a will — Italian intestate succession rules under Articles 565 to 586 of the Italian Civil Code govern the distribution of Italian-situs assets, including bank accounts and real property. Entitlement to inherit is determined by these provisions, regardless of the terms of an Irish Grant of Administration.
The practical chain of steps for an Irish heir looks like this. Obtain the Grant of Probate or Letters of Administration from the Irish Probate Office. Have it apostilled under the 1961 Hague Convention. Commission a certified notarised translation into Italian. Gather civil status documents — death certificate, marriage certificate if applicable, birth certificates of all heirs — all apostilled and translated. Take these to an Italian notary, who will prepare the atto di notorietà. A dichiarazione di successione (the Italian succession declaration, which is also a tax return filed with the Agenzia delle Entrate, Italy's tax authority) must then be filed within 12 months of the date of death. Italian inheritance tax, where it applies, is assessed on this filing.
The Italian notary will typically require all of the following. Original Grant of Probate or Letters of Administration from the Irish Probate Office, bearing an apostille. Death certificate, apostilled. Birth certificates for each heir, apostilled. Marriage or civil partnership certificate where relevant, apostilled. Inland Revenue Affidavit (Form CA 24), which in Ireland establishes the assets declared for inheritance tax purposes — the Italian notary uses it as a background financial document. Certified notarised translations of all of the above into Italian. If the deceased held Irish property, evidence that Irish inheritance tax obligations have been addressed may also be required, though Italian notaries vary in how strictly they ask for this.
The dichiarazione di successione must include every Italian-situs asset: bank accounts, real property, any investment held with an Italian institution. Italian inheritance tax rates range from 4% (direct line relatives, on amounts above €1,000,000 per heir) to 8% (unrelated beneficiaries), with the exempt threshold for children and spouses set at €1,000,000 each. These are real figures under D.Lgs. 346/1990, as most recently amended by D.Lgs. 139/2024 and D.Lgs. 123/2025.
Even with a valid atto di notorietà in hand, Italian bank branches frequently impose additional internal requirements. They may ask for a copy of the filed dichiarazione di successione bearing the Agenzia delle Entrate receipt stamp. Some require evidence of self-assessment tax payment under the regime introduced on 1 January 2026 by D.Lgs. 123/2025. Others ask for a visura catastale, the land registry search providing current cadastral data on any property declared in the succession. These are not legally mandated by the bank in every case, but refusing to comply will simply extend the delay.
Under Article 48 of D.Lgs. 346/1990, Italian banks are obliged to freeze assets after being notified of a death until the succession declaration has been filed and taxes paid or guaranteed. A bank that releases funds prematurely faces joint liability for unpaid succession tax. This is why the bank's caution is structural, not arbitrary.
The Italian Court of Cassation, Joint Divisions, in judgment no. 21671 of 12 September 2024 (Cass. civ., Sez. Unite, sent. 12 settembre 2024 n. 21671) confirmed that the succession declaration is a condition precedent to the release of assets held by financial institutions, independent of the heir's identity or nationality. The bank is not discriminating against Irish heirs: it is applying the same rule to everyone.
From 1 January 2026, the mechanism known as coacervo successorio was abolished by D.Lgs. 139/2024 (G.U. n. 231 of 2 October 2024) as implemented by D.Lgs. 123/2025 (G.U. n. 186 of 12 August 2025). Under the old rule, lifetime gifts from the deceased to any heir were aggregated with the estate value when calculating whether the €1,000,000 threshold had been reached. That aggregation no longer applies. Each donation and each inheritance is now assessed independently. For an Irish heir whose parent made substantial gifts to Italian children in earlier years, this means the Italian estate they inherit is no longer burdened by those earlier transfers when calculating tax thresholds.
Separately, Irish families with assets held in English-law trusts owning Italian property must also factor in the trust taxation framework reshaped by Decreto Omnibus n. 148 of 7 August 2026 (G.U. n. 185, 11 August 2026, in force 12 August 2026), which introduced an irrevocable option to pay all succession and mortgage taxes on contribution rather than on distribution. This affects the overall inheritance tax exposure for Irish beneficiaries of such trusts.
In our files, the most common mistake is the Irish family that instructs their Dublin solicitor to send documents directly to the Italian bank or to the Italian land registry, bypassing the Italian notary entirely. The Italian notary is not optional: they are the gateway through which the succession is formally recognised under Italian law. The apostille covers the authentication of the Irish document; it does not convert the Grant of Probate into an instrument that Italian institutions can act upon directly. We see this error most often when an Irish solicitor who has never handled Italian succession assumes that EU membership creates procedural equivalence. It does not, and for Ireland the position is particularly clear.
The 12-month deadline runs from the date of death, not from the date you learn about the Italian assets. Banks, land registries, and the Agenzia delle Entrate all apply it without exception.
As the legal theorist Lon Fuller observed in The Morality of Law, a legal system's procedural requirements derive their legitimacy from being known and applied consistently — it is the heir's duty to discover them, not the state's duty to explain them in advance. Italian succession procedure is consistent. The difficulty for Irish families is that it is consistent in Italian.
Order the Italian death certificate from the relevant Italian municipality (comune) if you do not already have it. Check the Italian assets: ask the family, look for Italian bank correspondence, check for property registered with the Italian land registry. Instruct an Italian notary or a lawyer whose practice covers Italian succession as soon as possible — not after the Irish probate is complete. Begin gathering the documents listed above for apostilling; apostille processing in Ireland currently takes approximately 10 to 15 working days through the Department of Foreign Affairs. Do not send any document to an Italian bank until the Italian notary has advised you that the succession procedure is in order and the dichiarazione di successione has been filed. If assets are substantial, request a preliminary tax calculation before filing, since the self-assessment regime now in force under D.Lgs. 123/2025 requires the heir to calculate and pay tax at the time of filing.
Can I use my Irish Grant of Probate to access an Italian bank account directly?
Not without further steps. An Irish Grant of Probate must be apostilled, notarially translated into Italian, and then presented to an Italian notary who will prepare the formal heirship declaration. The Italian bank will also require evidence that the succession declaration has been filed with the Italian tax authority. Sending the Grant of Probate to the bank directly will not unfreeze the account.
How long does it take to release an Italian bank account for an Irish heir?
In straightforward cases, from six to nine months from the date of death, assuming the apostilled documents from Ireland arrive promptly and the Italian notary can proceed without complications. Delays in gathering and apostilling Irish civil status documents are the most common cause of overruns. The 12-month succession declaration deadline applies throughout.
Is there Italian inheritance tax to pay, and does it matter that I live in Ireland?
Yes, Italian inheritance tax applies to Italian-situs assets regardless of where the heir lives. The rate for children and spouses is 4% on the value exceeding €1,000,000 per heir; for siblings it is 6% above €100,000 per heir; for all others it is 8% with no threshold. Irish residence does not reduce Italian inheritance tax on Italian assets, though a double taxation treaty between Ireland and Italy on inheritance does not currently exist, so the interaction with Irish Capital Acquisitions Tax must be considered with Irish tax advice.
HREFLANG BLOCK:
Editorial Team — Panato Law Firm Staff
