Can I renounce my inheritance in Malta if I don’t want it?

Yes, renunciation of an inheritance is expressly recognised under the Civil Code, Chapter 16 of the Laws of Malta, and given that accepting an inheritance in Malta generally means accepting both the assets and the liabilities of the estate together, renunciation can be a genuinely important option to consider where an estate's debts may outweigh or significantly offset its assets. Article 860 of the Civil Code specifically provides that renunciation of an inheritance cannot be presumed or implied from your conduct; it must be an express declaration, made either by filing a formal declaration in the registry of the court of voluntary jurisdiction for the district where the deceased resided at death, or through a declaration made by a notarial act, meaning simply doing nothing or informally telling family members you don't want your share does not legally constitute a valid renunciation. It's also important to understand that if you renounce a testate inheritance under a will, you generally also forfeit any related rights you might otherwise have had under intestate succession rules, so this is a significant and generally irreversible decision that should be made only after properly understanding the full picture of the estate's assets and liabilities, ideally with a lawyer's guidance.