IHT423 - IHT Direct Payment Scheme

nom_de_plume

Does anyone actually use this method of paying Inheritance Tax?

I took a bunch of these forms down to 4 banks today and not one of them had a clue what they were. In Santander, the customer service assistant had never seen one in 27 years (in fairness this payment option has only been around for the last 10 years). The Barclays guy had to ring the bereavement team for advice and both Nat West and Nationwide took them after asking around the office without success but with a promise of finding the correct home for them.

John_Pierpoint

You are not the only one......
http://boards.fool.co.uk/many-banks-will-release-funds-directly-to-hmrc-12505822.aspx

nom_de_plume

Interesting link. The 4 banks I visited all got the same Revenue and Customs form so looks like I can expect a few returns in the coming days.
Barclays, Nationwide, Santander and NatWest BTW.

nom_de_plume

A little update.

NatWest and Barclays both paid direct to HMRC as requested. Santander required sight of the death certificate despite it having previously been provided to the local branch.
Nationwide wrote back stating they do not participate in the scheme and enclosed a form to fill in to request a cheque payable to HMRC. It's the same form for requesting payment for funeral costs, etc.

troubleinparadise

My Natwest local branch hadn't seen one of these before.

They set up a Faster payment - then didn't action it!

For which I (well, the Executor's account) was compensated £25 - fortunately I wasn't financially inconvenienced by a late payment incurring penalties, but it just meant yet another task that had to be addressed on several occasions when it should have been straightforward.

John_Pierpoint

As nearly 2,000 people die, per working day, it amaze me that the financial institutions cannot train their staff in a "bereavement" procedure; let alone formulate a common procedure across their industry.

batchoy

I settled the IHT on my mother's estate I used direct payments with HSBC, C&G, Barclays and Santander. Everything went smoothly with all but Santander who have been the bane of my life from the day my mother died.

Apparently unlike everybody else Santander apparently have a rule that means that they will only pay upto 90% of the value of the funds account. However they don't tell you this rule and don't tell you that they haven't honoured the direct payment request if it is for over the 90% threshold. I only found out they had not followed my instruction and not paid up when HMRC sent me a statement showing a shortfall and warning me that the amount would be subject to interest if I didn't settle it before the six month anniversary.