IHT Question

Jeems

My father died a while back and I've been working my way through IHT400. Everything passes to my mother, so whilst the form was long, it was pretty straightforward.

Anyway, in the declaration section it asks if I wish to apply for a Probate, Confirmation, Letters of Administration, Letters of Administration with will annexed or Other.

I dont think I need any, is this correct? If so, can I just leave this section blank? My father did not have anything in his sole name, everything was joint with my mother.

Keep_pedalling

If you need to complete a IHT400 yes one of those would apply, however it sounds like an excepted estate and you should be filling in IHT205 instead.

Jeems

Thanks for your reply - I originally started filling out IHT205 but my dad had gifted a large cash sum to myself (over 140k) in the last 7 years, so it told me to fill out IHT400 instead - this is the only reason I filled this out. So I guess no need to apply for anything?

Also, what happens once you send it off - do you know how long they take, do they send a letter to say "thank you its all sorted", or do they sometimes come back with questions?

Jeems

One final question, I've gone through the "deductions" section and added in funeral costs, outstanding bills etc which can come out of his estate. The value comes to around £5k which I've put down, but there doesnt seem to be a box at the end of the form where you work out if IHT is due or not, for me to put down this deduction against the total value of the estate.

All I see is on the final page is:

Total Chargeable value of gifts made within 7 years
Aggregate chargeable transfer
IHT nil rate band at time of death
Transferable Nil Rate band
Value Chargeable to tax
IHT

Now his estate doesn't exceed the nil rate band, deduction or not but I'm thinking ahead to when my mother eventually passes (touch wood not for many years) as this will affect her transferable nil rate band.

Or do HMRC calculate this and send you a confirmation of the total value of the estate? (surely they dont do this for you?!). Seems strange there isn't a box for this or am I missing something? Its been a long day...!

Any help much appreciated!

franzman

The aggregate chargeable transfer figure already includes your deductions. If you go back work through the boxes on pages 8 through 11 you will see what I mean

getmore4less

Don't forget to keep good records for the future transferable nil rate band as that will be reduced due to the gifts.