Probate & IHT

treecol

My mother had all their savings in her name at the time of her death as my father was a tax payer. Her entire estate was left to him. He has now died & I'm trying to sort things out. Her estate was below £350k. His estate is below £325k & I'm filling in IHT205 & IHT217 as per HMRC instructions to transfer the full £650 non liability to his estate.
But I'm a little stuck as I haven't done this before, so can you assist please? I'm trying to uncover all his paperwork, but if he made any gifts of money after he inherited her estate, does that make the estate taxable even though below the IHT threshold?
Is her estate taxable in the time it was in his name , or not at all as it was below the threshold & he wasn't earning from it.

Your_Hero

treecol wrote: »

My mother had all their savings in her name at the time of her death as my father was a tax payer. Her entire estate was left to him. He has now died & I'm trying to sort things out. Her estate was below £350k. His estate is below £325k & I'm filling in IHT205 & IHT217 as per HMRC instructions to transfer the full £650 non liability to his estate.
But I'm a little stuck as I haven't done this before, so can you assist please? I'm trying to uncover all his paperwork, but if he made any gifts of money after he inherited her estate, does that make the estate taxable even though below the IHT threshold?
Is her estate taxable in the time it was in his name , or not at all as it was below the threshold & he wasn't earning from it.

Did your mother make any gifts 7 years prior to death?

How much is the total estate upon your father's death?

How much were the gifts and when were they made?

Also, if you are stuck on this, perhaps it may be wise to pay a solicitor to do this?

uknick

You mother can’t make a gift after she died; therefore any gifts made by your father would be relevant to his estate calculation, not hers.

Or, do you mean he satisfied bequests from her will? In which case, they wouldn’t affect her estate IHT calculation at the time of your father's death as the amounts should have been included in her own IHT calculation. They should not be included in your father's estate calculation.

With regard to gifts, the value of them, after any taper relief, is used to reduce the IHT allowance of £325k. The remaining allowance is then used to calculate the estate value for IHT.

See this link

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/inheritancetax/pass-money-property/charity-examples.htm

If you want a solicitor to help you make sure they are qualified to deal with IHT. Not all are.