advice re probate forms

simonineaston

Hi folks,
as has been noted often elsewhere on these pages, engaging a solicitor to process probate can be slow and expensive... and yet, elements of probate can be difficult to understand. Can folks advise a source of good advice (other than here, of course!) I'm aware there's a help desk, run by the government probate service, but haven't tried it - anyone had any experience of it?

Brighty

I found the forms and their guidance notes pretty self explanatory. Did 2 lots of probate forms 2 months apart with no issues.
What elements of probate do you think might be difficult?

*~Zephyr~*

Same here. We did probate for my FIL 3 years ago and the form was pretty easy. It's fairly self explanatory, but the guidance notes are helpful if you're in any doubt.

You can download the forms you need (PA1 and IHT205) easily and they are only 4 pages each.

If fact, I was very surprised by how easy they were to complete. So much so, I now wonder why anyone chooses to engage a solicitor for small estates!

I'm assuming the Estate falls under the IHT threshold?

LutonGirl

Ditto Zephyr and Brighty. If it's a straightforward estate and you have the paperwork you need to hand, it is very easy.

poppystar

To put your mind at rest why not download the forms and the guidance notes and have a practice run through? Once I'd done this the process was a lot clearer.
I listed the few queries we still had and phoned the very helpful people on the helpline at that stage who were able to clear up these specific points.

Tuesday_Tenor

If the Guidelines look daunting: they're lengthy because they have to cover all sorts of unusual circumstances that occur rarely, and only apply to a tiny proportion of estates.

If you go through the Guidelines once, crossing out every section that doesn't apply, you'll cross out about 90% that you'll never need look at again. The remaining 10% will help you assess how manageable the task really is.

Owain_Moneysaver

simonineaston wrote: »

I'm aware there's a help desk, run by the government probate service, but haven't tried it - anyone had any experience of it?

Spent a lot of time on hold listening to messages about how all the answers are on the website -- not sure I ever actually got through to a human.

The forms themselves are very well designed (even the IHT400 and all the supplements) but you can't save data in the PDFs and continue later. I set up a spreadsheet for the IHT205 and it makes putting in the info as it's collected much easier. (If anyone wants a blank one PM me with an email address and state whether .ods or .xls file format)

Misterboy

I filled in probate application myself just 10 days ago. Yes it did look daunting but I took my time with each question. When I got stuck in just read the appropriate notes. All it cost me was the probate application fees and about an hour of concentration.

getmore4less

as others have said even if you have to go to IHT400(and friends) much of the info needed is straight forward or not relevant.
(if you will only need IHT205 it can be worth looking at IHT400 as 400 has more info and help so can make it clearer what is going on)

Some of the more complex stuff becomes easy once you get your head round what is being asked.

One trick when going through the form is do it in one go, at each section log, I know the answer now, I need to gather the info but know what it means, I don't understand, definitely not relevant.

don't linger or get distracted, just note what needs doing for each bit the form and the question number
eg.
get all the bank balances and accrued interest
find out if they had pensions
find out what that means.
ignore.

Probably takes about an hour, then work through each bit separately but in parallel gathering the data and asking the questions(research).

there is a high level overview of IHT on .gov
https://www.gov.uk/topic/personal-tax/inheritance-tax
and for the full Monty the HMRC IHT manual(overkill for a simple estste)
https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/inheritance-tax-manual

As an example a very commonly used bit is the transferable nil rate band.
If never seen before it takes a while to grasp the basics and a little longer if there is more complex issues like the dead spouse had been making gifts or there were trusts.

There are loads of pages on the web that cover IHT reading a few places can get the answer(practice your google searches)
For more complex stuff there are lots of examples in the HMRC IHT manual but that takes time to grasp how it works and will often have lots of examples that are not relevant(again practice helps)

looking at transferable nil rate band as an example

here is an overview of transferable nil rate band .gov page.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/inheritance-tax-transfer-of-threshold

the form(many cases the answer becomes 100% very quickly so is easy)
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/inheritance-tax-claim-to-transfer-unused-nil-rate-band-iht402
and (if doing it later)
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/inheritance-tax-claim-to-transfer-unused-inheritance-tax-nil-rate-band-iht216


here is the starting page on transferable nil rate band.
https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/inheritance-tax-manual/ihtm43000

if using a transferable nil rate band and it is not 100% you also need this page
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rates-and-allowances-inheritance-tax-thresholds/inheritance-tax-thresholds

and finally to complicate things further if the death is after 5th April 2017
the residential nil rate band
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/inheritance-tax-residence-nil-rate-band