3.1.1.3 Different taxable persons

As noted in chapter 2, death may often trigger two common types of taxes among the states, namely an inheritance tax or an estate tax. The taxable person for the application of an inheritance tax is the beneficiary while the taxable person for the application of an estate tax is, depending on the legislation of the state, either the estate or the deceased. The difference in taxable persons in the event of a cross-border inheritance may often give rise to double taxation in a cross-border setting.1 According to Maisto, “[a] few states only provide relief if the foreign tax is levied on a different taxable person, as most states require the foreign tax to be borne by the same taxpayer claiming relief so that, a foreign tax levied on the estate as a taxable person or on the deceased person would not be creditable […].”2 The same is expected to happen if one state levies inheritance taxes and another state levies capital gains taxes upon a deemed disposition of the deceased’s property. In the former state, the beneficiaries are liable to pay the tax while in the latter the deceased becomes the relevant taxpayer with the deceased’s beneficiaries filing his last income tax return.