Making a Will in the Dominican Republic: Forced Heirship and What Foreigners Need to Know. In the Dominican Republic, dying without a will does not mean your family decides what happens next, the law does. Forced heirship rules, inherited from the French civil-law tradition, reserve a fixed portion of every estate for specific heirs, chiefly […]
Going to File a Translated Document Before a Dominican Court? Demand a Certified Judicial Interpreter A foreign investor arrives to sign a contract in Santo Domingo with a translation done by a bilingual friend. The notary, or the court, rejects it. This is not capricious bureaucracy: in the Dominican Republic, certain documents and certain proceedings […]
Getting Married in the Dominican Republic? Why and When to Register Your Prenup. Every year, couples fly to Punta Cana or Las Terrenas to marry on the beach, and quietly import a legal problem: a prenuptial agreement signed at home that may or may not hold up where the wedding, or the property, is located. […]
Under Dominican Law, there are two very important aspects which have an impact on the inheritance of assets of a deceased individual: the time and domicile of the deceased. The time of opening of an estate is the day that death occurs. Based on this rule of law, it is understood that the rights to […]
Dominican Republic Private International Law 544-14 was enacted on October 15th of 2014, and is now considered one of the most advanced references in the Caribbean. The objective of Private International Law 544-14 is to regulate the private international relationships of a civil and commercial character in the Dominican Republic, in particular those related to […]
Inheriting Assets in the Dominican Republic: Why Domicile, Not Nationality, Decides Everything When a foreign owner of Dominican property dies, the first legal question is not who the heirs are. It is where the deceased lived, because under Dominican rules, the last domicile decides which country’s succession law governs the estate. Two moments anchor every […]
The Dominican 3% Inheritance Tax: The 90-Days Deadline and Deductions The number that surprises heirs is not the rate, it is the deadline. The Dominican inheritance tax stands at a comparatively modest 3% of the estate, but the tax return must be filed within ninety days of death. For a grieving family scattered across two […]
Contesting Paternity in the Dominican Republic: DNA Evidence, Court Process and What’s at Stake Paternity is not only a family matter, it is a financial one. In the Dominican Republic, a legally established father owes child support and, at death, passes forced inheritance rights to the child. When the biological reality does not match the […]
Gifting Property in Dominican Republic: The 27% Donations Tax and the Transactions It Quietly Captures Giving property away in the Dominican Republic is taxed more heavily than dying with it. While inheritances pay 3%, donations are taxed at the rate applicable to corporate income tax, currently 27%, computed on the value of the goods donated. […]
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