Paying Inheritance Tax

Crowdedhouse_2

Hi, can someone please help?


I have today applied online for an Inheritance Tax reference number which will take about 7 days to be received through the post.


We have until 31st August to pay Inheritance Tax without HMRC charging interest or any penalties on top of this amount.


However, due to numerous problems which have caused delays over the last 6 months with regards to getting the estate sorted out, we are still missing some figures to include on the probate forms. The main one being the DWP as cousin had been on benefits for some years. It is not only the amount that DWP continued paying into her account after her death but I'm wondering if cousin possibly had more in savings than she declared when she first applied for benefits. I'm not 100% sure if this is the case or not. I have spoken to DWP who have said they will write to us in due course, but haven't heard anything from them yet. Not sure how to account for this on the probate papers. It feels a bit like asking how long is a piece of string.


Will HMRC need the probate papers to be submitted to them first before I can pay any Inheritance Tax or can I just guesstimate (and it will have to be a very big guesstimate) the amount of Inheritance Tax due and send them the probate papers in due course? Or do they have to have all the probate forms completed first before they accept any Inheritance Tax?


Does anybody have any advice or found themselves in a similar position? Very confused and panicking here as the days tick by.


Thanks.

Keep_pedalling

The simplest thing to do would be to pay the tax based on just the known assets. If the estate owes money for benefits that should not have been payed then you can get a refund on the overplayed tax.

Crabapple

Fill in all the info you have and put a note of any estimates or figures you don't have yet.

You can send in a corrective account later when you have the rest of the figures and sort any extra tax out then but you will have paid the majority and minimised interest.

Crowdedhouse_2

Many thanks.