The reassuring parts first: the Maldives levies no inheritance tax, and your leasehold interest is transferable to your heirs — the lease itself passes on, renewable at market value. On the succession-law question, there is a nuance. Maldivian succession is influenced by Sharia for Muslim residents, which sets fixed shares among heirs; for a non-Muslim foreign owner, testamentary freedom over your own assets is generally available, meaning you can typically direct who inherits — but this is subject to the status of the lease and the specifics of your case. Because consolidated official sources on Maldivian succession for foreigners are limited, this is precisely the area to have confirmed by a Maldivian lawyer for your exact situation before relying on it.
No death tax, and a lease that passes to your heirs
Estate planning around a Maldives residence starts from two genuinely favourable facts. First, there is no inheritance tax in the Maldives: transferring the asset on death does not trigger a Maldivian death-tax charge, which distinguishes the Maldives from many European jurisdictions where succession duty can be a major cost (your own country of residence may still tax the estate, which is a separate matter for your home-jurisdiction adviser). Second, the leasehold interest is inheritable. Because what you hold is a long-term, transferable lease rather than a perpetual freehold, the natural question is whether it can pass to heirs at all — and the answer is yes: the lease is transferable to heirs and renewable at market value, so the asset does not simply extinguish on death.
This makes a Maldives residence a workable long-term family asset rather than a purely personal, non-transmissible one — an angle that is almost entirely absent from the existing French-language content on the subject, and therefore worth understanding properly. The practical planning point is that the value your heirs receive is, like the value you hold, a function of the remaining lease term: an inheritable lease with many years left is a very different bequest from one nearing expiry, which ties this question back to the lease-expiry and resale-liquidity questions elsewhere in this guide.
Sharia, testamentary freedom, and why this needs a local lawyer
The succession-law layer is where care is needed. The Maldives is an Islamic state, and its inheritance rules are influenced by Sharia for Muslim residents — under which fixed proportional shares are allocated among defined heirs rather than distribution being left entirely to the deceased's wishes. For a non-Muslim foreign owner, the general position is that testamentary freedom applies to your own assets: you can typically direct, by will, who inherits your Maldives lease, rather than being bound by fixed Sharia shares. But 'general position' is doing real work in that sentence — the outcome can depend on the status of the lease, how the interest is held, and the interaction with your home-country succession and any will you have there.
This is the part of the whole cluster where authoritative, consolidated public sources are thinnest, which is itself a reason for caution rather than confidence. Rather than rely on a generic summary, a foreign owner should have their succession position confirmed by a Maldivian lawyer for their exact circumstances — ideally coordinated with their estate-planning adviser at home so that the Maldives lease is dealt with consistently alongside the rest of the estate. The no-inheritance-tax and transferable-lease points here are drawn from MIRA and the Constitution/Land Act framework; the Sharia-influence and testamentary-freedom points are directional and, given the limited official guidance, must be verified with a Maldivian lawyer for your specific case before you act.
Sources
Primary and expert sources behind this answer:
- MIRA — Maldives Inland Revenue Authority & Income Tax Act (Act 25/2019): 10% non-resident withholding on rent, no annual property tax, no capital gains, no inheritance tax ↗
- Constitution of the Maldives & Maldivian Land Act (Act No. 1 of 2002) — Freehold reserved to Maldivian citizens; foreign ownership only above the USD 1bn / 70%-reclaimed-land exception ↗
This page is general information, not legal or tax advice. Maldivian ownership is a long-term leasehold, not freehold, and the lease, tax, residency and succession rules are technical and change frequently. Every figure and rule here must be confirmed with a Maldivian lawyer and the developer for the specific residence before you act.
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