The division of the estate shall pay off the taxes and debts that the deceased shall pay according to law, which is stipulated in Article 1159 of the Inheritance Part of the Civil Code. There are broad and narrow sense of inheritance debts, and the narrow sense of inheritance debts refers to the personal debts incurred by the deceased during his lifetime, including the taxes that should be paid in accordance with the law and the debts incurred due to the needs of production and life. In a broad sense, estate debts cover all debts of the property for which the estate is the responsibility, including the debts incurred by the deceased during his lifetime, the taxes payable, and the inheritance expenses incurred after the commencement of the inheritance, bequest debts, and debts for the right to distribute the appropriate inheritance.
First of all, from the background of the legal system in which articles 1162 and 1163 of the Civil Code both provide for inheritance debts and bequests in parallel, the inheritance debts in China's Civil Code should belong to the concept of inheritance debts in a narrow sense.
Secondly, if the time node is divided by the beginning of inheritance, inheritance debts can usually be divided into debts before the beginning of inheritance, debts at the beginning of inheritance, and debts after the beginning of inheritance. Debts before the commencement of inheritance, that is, debts incurred by the deceased during his lifetime. Debts at the beginning of inheritance and debts after the commencement of inheritance are inheritance event debts, which are debts that arise due to the death of the deceased and are linked to the estate. Debts at the commencement of inheritance refer to debts and burdens that take effect at the commencement of inheritance, mainly including debts that must be retained, debts that are assigned to appropriate estate claims, debts of bequests and maintenance agreements, and debts of bequests. The debts after the commencement of inheritance mainly refer to the debts and burdens related to the estate itself arising from the administration of the inheritance, the liquidation of the estate, the division of the estate, etc., also known as the debts of the inheritance itself, mainly including inheritance expenses and common debts.
Thirdly, the debts of the taxes that should be paid by the deceased in accordance with the law during his lifetime belong to debts with the attributes of public law, which are different from the debts of inheritance with the attributes of private law, so Article 1159 of the Inheritance Part of the Civil Code lists the taxes and debts together, reflecting the rigor of the law. Although inheritance tax has not yet been implemented, inheritance tax is a debt that the heirs should bear, and the tax here does not include inheritance tax.
Fourth, debts arising at the beginning of inheritance, such as debts that must be retained, debts for the right to claim appropriate inheritance, debts for bequests and maintenance agreements, and debts for bequests, do not fall within the scope of inheritance debts in the Civil Code, and these so-called "debts" do not have the nature of "debts" in themselves, but belong to the division of inheritance, and do not belong to the repayment of inheritance debts as stipulated in the Civil Code.
Fifth, inheritance expenses refer to the expenses incurred after the commencement of inheritance, such as estate administration, estate division, and execution of wills, and are debts incurred after the commencement of inheritance, and debts incurred for the common interests of all inheritance stakeholders. For example, the estate administrator hires a professional appraisal agency to conduct an appraisal of the value of the estate. Inheritance expenses belong to the category of common benefit debts in nature, and in principle, they have priority over inheritance claims, and should be paid off in advance when the estate is divided, and shall be paid out of the estate. Therefore, inheritance costs should not be included in the scope of inheritance debts in the Civil Code. The legislation of various countries usually specifically stipulates the inheritance fee in addition to the inheritance debt, but there is no relevant provision in China's legislation, in order to prevent legal loopholes, the provisions of Article 1159 of the Inheritance Part of the Civil Code can be applied.
Sixth, there are different views on whether funeral expenses are inheritance debts, but the mainstream view is that funeral expenses do not belong to inheritance expenses and do not belong to inheritance debts. Dealing with the funeral of the deceased has nothing to do with the inheritance and handling of the estate, and does not have the attribute of common benefit. Whether it is from the legal or moral point of view, or from the folk customs of our country, the heir has the obligation to bury the decedent and bear the funeral expenses by himself, and should not be paid from the inheritance. If the death of the decedent is caused by infringement, the funeral expenses shall be compensated by the infringer, and the funeral expenses are statutory compensation items and should not be included in the inheritance expenses. In a bequest maintenance agreement, the funeral legatee is an agreed obligation of the dependent, and it is not an inheritance debt. Only in exceptional circumstances, that is, only if there is no funeral obligor after the death of the decedent, the funeral expenses should be borne by the estate.