No. The allowance is a benefit for the person who covered the funeral costs, not a sum owed to the deceased, so it does not enter the estate. It is also outside inheritance and gift tax, because it is not an acquisition of property from the deceased. It is not divided among the heirs.
Why the allowance does not fall into the estate
The estate consists of what belonged to the deceased at the moment of death. The funeral allowance never belonged to them: the entitlement arises after the death and belongs to the person who bore the funeral costs. It is a benefit aimed at a specific expense, not a component of what the deceased left behind.
The other heirs therefore have no claim to a share of the allowance, even if they inherit in equal parts.
Inheritance and gift tax does not reach it
That tax applies to acquiring property from the deceased through inheritance, a bequest or an instruction. The allowance is not such an acquisition, because what gives rise to the entitlement is not the death as a succession event but the fact of bearing the funeral costs. It is therefore not declared on the SD-Z2 form and does not appear in succession proceedings.
What gets confused with it
The funeral allowance is easily mixed up with three other things that are settled entirely differently:
- money in the deceased’s account, which does fall into the estate,
- reimbursement of funeral costs paid out by the bank from the deceased’s account, which reduces the estate,
- a life insurance benefit, which reaches the named beneficiary outside the estate.
The first is inherited, the second reduces what the heirs receive, and the third never passes through the estate at all.
Which documents to keep
Where one person finances the funeral and several divide the estate, documentation of the outlay settles later conversations. Invoices issued to the person who paid, together with the ZUS decision granting the allowance, are enough to show what was the allowance and what was spent from the deceased’s assets.
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