So You Are the Executor: A Personal Representative’s Guide to a Cross-Border Estate
The guide explains, in plain language, what the personal representative of an estate with assets in the United States and in Germany, France, the United Kingdom or Switzerland is responsible for, and in what order the work is done.
By Caroline Esche Ashford, PhD, JD · Updated in August 2026
In brief.
- One rule protects the personal representative: nothing goes to the heirs until the advisors have stated in writing that both countries’ taxes are settled or secured by a reserve. Distributing before the US estate tax is paid can make the representative personally liable for it, up to the amount distributed (31 U.S.C. § 3713(b)).
- US duties do not wait for a court. Where no US executor is in office, whoever holds the US assets is the executor for estate tax purposes (I.R.C. § 2203), and the nine months for the return run from the date of death.
- The first month is about control: securing the assets, stopping every transfer, ordering death certificates with apostilles and translations, obtaining a US tax number for the estate and drawing up one schedule of all deadlines in both countries.
- US banks and brokers freeze a foreign decedent’s accounts until the IRS issues a transfer certificate. Where no return is required, the IRS quotes 12 to 18 months for it, and a well-run two-country estate usually takes 18 to 30 months.
- Income that a US estate distributes to heirs abroad is subject to US withholding at 30 percent or a lower treaty rate, which requires the heir’s form before payment. Treaty credits prevent double tax only if claimed in time, with proof.
The issue
When someone dies owning a vacation home in California and savings in Germany, two legal systems apply to the estate, and they do not coordinate. Each country runs its own proceedings and makes its own tax claims. Only the personal representative is involved in all of it. US law attaches personal liability to that role, and the most common error is paying the heirs before the taxes of both countries are settled.
Who the guide is for
The guide is written for the person named executor, personal representative or Testamentsvollstrecker, and for the family member who ends up handling the estate without being a tax or probate professional. It separates what the advisors do from what the representative must decide, sign and keep.
Personal liability and the US definition of executor
A representative who pays the heirs too early can be held liable for the unpaid US estate tax, and the heirs who received property can be pursued as well. Because US law treats whoever holds the deceased’s US property as the executor where no US executor is in office, the US return can be due before any court has acted. The guide therefore calls for US advisors in the first weeks, even when the US assets seem small.
Deadlines in two countries and the account freeze
The home-country deadlines usually expire first. In Germany, each heir has three months to report the inheritance to the tax office, and a refusal must be declared within six weeks, in some cases six months; in France the inheritance declaration is due within six months of a death in metropolitan France; the British account is due twelve months after the end of the month of death, the tax at six months. The US return is due nine months after death, and extending the filing deadline does not postpone payment. US custodians keep accounts frozen until the transfer certificate arrives, because releasing assets without it can make them liable for the tax.
The estate’s two tax lives and payments to heirs abroad
The estate tax is computed once, on the values at death. The estate also pays income tax on what its assets earn until the final distribution. When a US estate distributes income to a beneficiary abroad, it must withhold tax and file Forms 1042 and 1042-S by March 15 of the following year. The heirs have filings of their own: a US citizen or resident receiving more than USD 100,000 from a foreign estate in a year reports it on Form 3520, and heirs abroad report at home.
Double taxation and the credits
For a deceased resident of Germany, France or the United Kingdom who was not a US citizen, those treaties generally confine US estate tax to US real estate and business property; under the Swiss treaty, US shares remain taxable with a prorated exemption. The country of residence taxes the whole estate and allows a credit for the US tax. These credits are not automatic: each must be applied for within its own period, on evidence that the other country’s tax has been finally assessed and paid. The guide describes the usual sequence of provisional filing, correction and credit, and the reserve held until both countries have cleared the estate.
The questions the guide answers
- When does US law treat someone as executor without a court appointment?
- What must be done in the first month, and what must not be done?
- Which deadlines run in each country, and which elective periods, such as refusals and disclaimers, close early?
- Why are the US accounts frozen, and how can the estate plan around the wait?
- What must be withheld and reported when income is paid to heirs abroad, and what must the heirs file themselves?
- How are the credits claimed so that the estate does not pay twice?
- What does the representative need before closing the estate?
- Part I. The office assumed and the American definition of executor
- Part II. The first month: control before speed
- Part III. The deadlines in two countries and the freeze of the American accounts
- Part IV. The estate’s two tax lives and the withholding on payments to heirs abroad
- Part V. What the beneficiaries must file themselves
- Part VI. Two countries will tax; the credits that prevent paying twice
- Part VII. The close, the reserve and the file
- Part VIII. Practical steps
The firm acts for personal representatives, executors and heirs of estates with assets in the United States and Europe: US court filings, estate tax returns on Form 706 or 706-NA including treaty claims, the transfer certificate, withholding on distributions abroad and the briefing of beneficiaries. German questions are covered by the firm’s German-qualified lawyers; for France and other countries it works with the estate’s advisors there or with colleagues from its network.
Figures as of October 2026.
This page is general information as of the date stated and is not legal or tax advice. The application of the rules and conventions described depends on the facts of each case.
