Suppose your mother, a dual ROC and U.S. national, lived in California for decades. On her estate lawyer's advice she signed a will and a revocable living trust, and the trust schedule lists her Taipei apartment and her Taiwan bank account. After her death you, the successor trustee, find that the Taipei land register still shows her as owner and the account is still in her name.
On those facts, the U.S. documents alone move neither asset. The trust never took title in Taiwan, and the will must first pass Taiwan's test of which country's law governs it.
A trust that never took title in Taiwan
Taiwan's Trust Law, Article 1 (信託法) defines a trust as the settlor transferring or otherwise disposing of a property right so that a trustee manages it. Rights in a Taipei apartment are governed by Taiwan law, as the law of the place where the property sits (Act Governing the Choice of Law in Civil Matters Involving Foreign Elements, Article 38). Under Article 758 of the Civil Code, a change in real property rights by a legal act takes effect only on registration, and under Article 4 of the Trust Law a trust of registrable property cannot be asserted against third parties without trust registration (a trust of shares needs notice to the issuing company).
An apartment listed on a California trust schedule, but never transferred to the trustee and registered as trust property at the Taipei land office, was therefore still your mother's own property when she died. A bank deposit is not a registered asset, but if the account stayed in her name, ask the bank whether it will pay a trustee on the trust instrument alone. Whatever stayed in her name goes through Taiwan's succession and will procedures, which is where the U.S. will comes in.
Which law Taiwan uses to test the will
Under Article 60 of the same Act (涉外民事法律適用法), the formation and effect of a will follow the testator's national law at the time the will was made; revocation follows the national law at the time of revocation. Article 61 is more flexible on form. It accepts a will that satisfies that national law or any one of three others: the law of the place where the will was made, of the testator's domicile at death, or, for a will dealing with real estate, of the place where the real estate is located.
A person with more than one nationality is treated as a national of the country with the closest connection (Article 2). If that is the United States, where law differs from state to state, Article 5 looks to U.S. rules on which law applies and, if those are unclear, to the law most closely connected with the person. Succession itself follows the national law at death, with one proviso: an ROC national who is an heir under ROC law may inherit the estate located in Taiwan (Article 58). What a given state's law says is a question for a U.S. attorney.
Two Taiwan rulings on wills signed abroad
In a judgment of July 22, 2024 (112年度家繼訴字第31號), the Taiwan Taoyuan District Court dealt with a will made in Canada in 2002 by a dual Canadian and ROC national. The deceased had moved back from Canada to Taoyuan and had not left Taiwan after entering in 2018. The court found ROC nationality the closest and applied ROC law to the will's formation and effect. The heirs relying on the will produced no authentication by Taiwan's office in Canada. The court could not find the signatures of the testator and the witnessing lawyer genuine, and held that the document met neither the holographic nor the dictated form of the Civil Code. It rejected distribution under the will and divided the estate by statutory shares. This is a district-court ruling.
The Taiwan High Court's judgment of January 31, 2023 (111年度家上字第312號) concerned a will an ROC national made in the United States. A bank declined to release the deposit, saying it could not judge whether the will was valid or whether it appointed an executor. The High Court applied ROC law under Article 60. The will had been taken down by one of three witnesses, and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles had certified the signatures of the testator and the witnesses. The court presumed the document to be genuine, found that it met the form of a dictated will and, reversing the first-instance judgment, confirmed the testator's child as executor.
If Taiwan law governs: form and forced shares
The Civil Code recognizes five forms of will: holographic, notarized, sealed, dictated and oral (Article 1189). A holographic will must be written out in full by the testator, dated and signed (Article 1190). A dictated will needs at least three witnesses (Article 1194). A notarized will is made before a notary with at least two witnesses, and ROC nationals living abroad may make one before an ROC consular officer where one is stationed (Article 1191).
A typed will signed in front of two witnesses is not a holographic will and falls short of the three witnesses a dictated will needs. The questions in Taiwan are then whether it satisfies an Article 61 alternative, such as the law of the place of signing, and whether the signatures can be proved.
A testator may dispose of the estate freely only within the forced-share rules (Article 1187), and an heir whose forced share (特留分) is cut short by a bequest may claim a reduction from the bequeathed property (Article 1225). Under Article 1223, the forced share of a spouse and of lineal descendants is one half of their statutory share. That article was amended and promulgated on August 17, 2026, with effect six months after promulgation, so for other heirs check the text in force on the date of death.
Estate tax and the land office
Taiwan estate tax reaches only property located in Taiwan when the deceased was an ROC national who regularly resided abroad, or was not an ROC national at all (Estate and Gift Tax Act, Article 1). A person regularly resided in Taiwan if they had a domicile there within two years before death, or had no domicile but a residence and stayed more than 365 days in total during those two years (Article 4). Someone who voluntarily gave up ROC nationality within two years before death is still taxed under the rules for ROC nationals (Article 3-1).
The return is due within six months from the day after death (Article 23). For ROC nationals who resided abroad and for foreigners, the Ministry of Finance tax portal names the National Taxation Bureau of Taipei as the filing office and says documents issued abroad must be authenticated by the local Taiwan mission and filed with a Chinese translation. The exemption applies on the same basis as for residents (Article 18) and is NT$13.33 million for deaths in 2026 (Ministry of Finance announcement). The deductions for a spouse, children and parents, among others, do not apply (Article 17, second paragraph). Under Article 6, as amended and promulgated on September 11, 2026, an executor may file and pay on behalf of the heirs and legatees. U.S. federal and state taxes are a separate question for a U.S. tax adviser.
Until the tax is paid, the estate cannot be partitioned, a bequest cannot be delivered and title cannot be transferred (Article 8), and the land office will not register a transfer without the payment or exemption certificate (Article 42). Article 119 of the Land Registration Rules lists the documents for inheritance registration. Where the will leaves the apartment to a legatee, the heirs must first complete inheritance registration and then apply together with the legatee; if the will names an executor, the executor is registered as well and applies with the legatee (Article 123). Ask the land office what authentication and translation it requires for a will made abroad.
Separate columns cover limits on foreign heirs holding Taiwan land, estate tax when the deceased lived abroad and collecting a Taiwan bank account from the United States.
Questions to raise while the plan is still being drafted
If the plan is not yet final, a few points are worth putting to both the U.S. estate lawyer and a Taiwan lawyer. One is whether to sign a separate will, in a Taiwan Civil Code form and limited to the Taiwan assets, and if so how to word the two wills so that neither reads as revoking the other. Another is whether to have documents signed in the U.S. authenticated by the Taiwan mission that covers the place of signing (Document Authentication Act, Article 10). In the two rulings above, the courts' view of the signatures turned on whether that authentication existed.
A third is whether the planned shares leave room for the forced shares that apply if Taiwan law governs. Actually placing the Taipei apartment in trust would also mean a trust registration in Taiwan (Land Registration Rules, Article 124) and a separate look at the tax consequences. Which of these fits depends on the family's nationalities and assets.
For a specific situation, email Hovering International Law Firm at wei@hoveringlaw.com.tw with the testator's nationalities and residence, the Taiwan assets involved, and when the U.S. will and trust were signed. This column is general information; the answer in a particular estate depends on the documents.
Official sources
- Act Governing the Choice of Law in Civil Matters Involving Foreign Elements: Art. 2, Art. 5, Art. 38, Art. 58, Art. 60, Art. 61
- Civil Code: Art. 758, Art. 1187, Art. 1189, Art. 1190, Art. 1191, Art. 1194, Art. 1223 (amended and promulgated August 17, 2026; in force six months after promulgation), Art. 1225
- Trust Law: Art. 1, Art. 4
- Estate and Gift Tax Act: Art. 1, Art. 3-1, Art. 4, Art. 6 (amended and promulgated September 11, 2026), Art. 8, Art. 17, Art. 18, Art. 23, Art. 42
- Land Registration Rules: Art. 119, Art. 123, Art. 124
- Act on Document Authentication by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Overseas Missions, Art. 10
- Ministry of Finance announcement of amounts for inheritances and gifts occurring in 2026
- Ministry of Finance press release of September 11, 2026 on the Estate and Gift Tax Act amendments
- Ministry of Finance tax portal: where to file the estate tax return (Q&A 3108), documents to attach (Q&A 3111)
- Taiwan High Court, judgment 111年度家上字第312號, January 31, 2023
- Taiwan Taoyuan District Court, judgment 112年度家繼訴字第31號, July 22, 2024
Checked: October 5, 2026
Frequently Asked Questions
- My mother's California living trust lists her Taipei apartment. Can the successor trustee sell it?
- Not on the trust document alone if the apartment was never transferred to the trustee and registered as trust property in Taiwan. Article 758 of Taiwan's Civil Code makes a change in real property rights by a legal act effective only on registration, and Article 4 of the Trust Law says an unregistered trust of registrable property cannot be asserted against third parties. If the land register still shows your mother, the apartment goes through estate tax filing and inheritance registration.
- Is a will signed in the United States valid in Taiwan?
- It depends on two tests. Formation and effect follow the testator's national law when the will was made, under Article 60 of Taiwan's choice-of-law statute. Form is satisfied if it meets that law, the law of the place of signing, the law of the domicile at death, or for real estate the law of its location, under Article 61. If Taiwan law governs, forced shares of a spouse and children also apply, and the signatures may have to be proved in Taiwan.
- My mother lived in the U.S. her whole adult life. Is a Taiwan estate tax return still needed?
- Yes, if she left property in Taiwan. Under Article 1 of the Estate and Gift Tax Act, an ROC national who regularly resided abroad, or a person who was not an ROC national, is taxed only on property in Taiwan. The return is due within six months from the day after death and goes to the National Taxation Bureau of Taipei. Title cannot be transferred until the tax is settled.
This article provides general information and is not legal advice on any individual matter.
