Estate tax

• Ownership is the exclusive right of possessing, enjoying, and disposing of property.
• The modes of ownership acquisition includes occupation, intellectual creation, donation, succession, and prescription.
• When ownership is acquired by occupation, property seized is without known owner.
• Donation is an act of liberality whereby a person disposes gratuitously of a thing or right in favor of another, who accepts it.
• Succession is a mode of acquisition by virtue of which the property, rights and obligations to the extent of the value of the inheritance, of a person are transmitted through his death to another.
• By prescription, one acquires ownership and other real rights through the lapse of time in the manner and under the conditions laid down by law.
• Estate tax and donor's tax are the two transfer taxes under our laws
• Transfer taxes are taxes imposed upon the gratuitous disposition of private property.
• In essence, estate tax is a type of excise or privilege tax, because it aims to tax a privilege—that is, of shifting the economic benefits and enjoyment of property from the dead to the living. 
• An estate is the sum of all the property of a deceased individual.
• There are 3 kinds of succession: testamentary or testate, legal or intestate, and mixed.
• Elements of succession includes the death of the decedent, inheritance, successors, and acceptance.
• Inheritance includes all the property, rights and obligation of a person which are not extinguished by his death.
• The inheritance of a person includes not only the property and the transmissible rights and obligations existing at the time of his death, but also those which have accrued thereto since the opening of the succession.
• Devise is a testamentary disposition of real estate.
• Legacy is a gift or bequest by will of personal property.
• An heir is a person called to the succession either by will or operation of law.
• Those heirs named by the will are called voluntary heirs.
• Legal or intestate heirs are heirs named by the provision of law.
• The acceptance of an inheritance may be express or tacit.
• An express acceptance may be made in a public or private document.
• An heir may accept or repudiate an inheritance.
• Executor is a person appointed by testator to carry out the directions and requests in his will, in accordance to his testamentary provisions.
• Administrator person appointed by the court.
• Will is a legal declaration before his death regarding how he wants his property to be transferred after his death.
• A will is an act whereby a person is permitted, with the formalities prescribed by law, to control to a certain degree the disposition of this estate, to take effect after his death.
• The making of a will is a strictly personal act; it cannot be left in whole or in part to the discretion of a third person, or accomplished through the instrumentality of an agent or attorney.
• A codicil is an instruments that amends the provision of a will.
• Probate of a will is the court procedure by which a will is proved to be valid or invalid.
• All persons who are not expressly prohibited by law may make a will.
• Persons under the age of majority cannot make a will.
• To be of sound mind, it is not necessary that the testator be in full possession of all his reasoning faculties, or that his mind be wholly unbroken. It shall be sufficient that he knows the nature of the estate to be disposed of.
• If the testator, one month, or less, before making his will was publicly known to be insane, the person who maintains the validity of the will must prove that the testator made it during a lucid interval.
• A married woman may make a will without the consent of her husband, and without the authority of the court.
• Notarial will is a written will that is executed in a language known to the testator. It must be subscribed by the testator and three or more credible witnesses. It shall be acknowledged before a notary public and the witnesses.
• A Holographic will is a will written entirely by the testator. It only needs to be written, dated and signed by the hand of the testator himself.
• If the signature in a holographic will is contested, three witnesses shall be required.
• Legitime is that part of the testator’s property which cannot dispose of because the law has reserved if for certain heirs who are, therefore, called compulsory heirs.
• Compulsory heirs includes legitimate children, legitimate parents, widow or widower, acknowledged natural children, and illegitimate children.
• Estate tax is to mortis-causa, and donor's tax is to inter vivos.