Bank statements, Solicitors and IHT

sparkiemalarkie

Hi, it has been arranged to get a solicitor to deal with Mum's Estate.
Will the solicitor need bank statements in order to work out IHT?
Mum's estate is very close to the max tax free allowance.


I have had a look through her paper work and can only find statements dating back to Jan 2012 so there are a couple of years missing.


I'm feeling a bit stressed and wondered if anyone could outline what might happen next.


tia


sparkie

Owain_Moneysaver

Were there any gifts (over £3k per year) made within the last 7 years which have to be taken into account for IHT?

The solicitor will be able to get closing balances at date of death from the bank as part of their account closing procedure. The bank will also supply a list of standing orders and direct debits so the appropriate organisations can be informed.

sparkiemalarkie

Owain_Moneysaver wrote: »

Were there any gifts (over £3k per year) made within the last 7 years which have to be taken into account for IHT?

The solicitor will be able to get closing balances at date of death from the bank as part of their account closing procedure. The bank will also supply a list of standing orders and direct debits so the appropriate organisations can be informed.

Yes there have been gifts, but I can't remember exactly how much. They were spread over a couple of years as the gifts were given to each family, as and when, the adult children visited mum.

There is no complete record.

What happens now?

tia

sparkie

Flugelhorn

depends how much the gifts were - it is only relevant if they are over a certain amount. (£3k in a year I think )

Keep_pedalling

When you say here estate is close to the IHT limit, have you taken into account the primary residence nil rate band?

sparkiemalarkie

Flugelhorn wrote: »

depends how much the gifts were - it is only relevant if they are over a certain amount. (£3k in a year I think )

Exactly.
I think it's £3k total in a year and anything under £250 can be disregarded as long as the same person doesn't receive more than one gift

Keep_pedalling wrote: »

When you say here estate is close to the IHT limit, have you taken into account the primary residence nil rate band?

I have googled nil rate band and have just worked through the Gov IHT form but don't have a clear understanding of what it is.


sparkie

Keep_pedalling

sparkiemalarkie wrote: »

Exactly.
I think it's £3k total in a year and anything under £250 can be disregarded as long as the same person doesn't receive more than one gift





I have googled nil rate band and have just worked through the Gov IHT form but don't have a clear understanding of what it is.


sparkie

Your mother has a nil rate band of £325k, and if she owns a house has an additional £100k providing the value of the house is at least that value, and she leaves it to her direct descendants.

If she was a widow then her estate could be up to £850k as both those nil rate bands can be transferred to hers, less any amount he left to others..

sparkiemalarkie

Keep_pedalling wrote: »

Your mother has a nil rate band of £325k, and if she owns a house has an additional £100k providing the value of the house is at least that value, and she leaves it to her direct descendants.

If she was a widow then her estate could be up to £850k as both those nil rate bands can be transferred to hers, less any amount he left to others..

Yes she was a widow and we have been working on the £650,000 since we are not clear what happens when the value of the house plus a hefty amount of cash/valuables come to more than £650,000 (house value in the region of £500,000)


s

Keep_pedalling

sparkiemalarkie wrote: »

Yes she was a widow and we have been working on the £650,000 since we are not clear what happens when the value of the house plus a hefty amount of cash/valuables come to more than £650,000 (house value in the region of £500,000)


s

In that case, if the house is worth at lest £200k then you will have an additional £200k to play with which makes the gifts less important, but you should still try to get the figures for your solisitor. If she gave you cheques you may be able to get older statements from your own bank.

sparkiemalarkie

Keep_pedalling wrote: »

In that case, if the house is worth at lest £200k then you will have an additional £200k to play with which makes the gifts less important, but you should still try to get the figures for your solisitor. If she gave you cheques you may be able to get older statements from your own bank.

Thank you, Keep pedalling


sparkie

Tom99

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Is there a particular reason you are using a solicitor to deal with the estate?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Sounds like the estate will be well within the £850k limit so unless there are some complicated issues you have not mentioned it would be cheaper to DIY.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]You will probably be the one feeding a lot of the info to the solicitor anyway and they may take a lot longer to obtain probate that it would take you.[/FONT]