Recognising unreceipted debts to estate

marcusjames

Thanks for replies.


Addressing some of the comments, the physio was £50 twice a week and comes in at nearly £7,500 for the 20 months.


My father was short of cash and I had put his car up for sale but with no takers. It's a long story, but we thought he would be returning home (hence the physio) and so didn't really feel it was going to be a long term loan. As I said before, hindsight is great but I never thought I'd be in this situation. He was getting fitter by the day.


The items held at a friend's house belong to my father. He gave them to the friend to sell on his behalf two years ago. I have ensured these are independently valued and included within the estate calculations.


I am the sole beneficiary.

Yorkshireman99

marcusjames wrote: »

Thanks for replies.


Addressing some of the comments, the physio was £50 twice a week and comes in at nearly £7,500 for the 20 months.


My father was short of cash and I had put his car up for sale but with no takers. It's a long story, but we thought he would be returning home (hence the physio) and so didn't really feel it was going to be a long term loan. As I said before, hindsight is great but I never thought I'd be in this situation. He was getting fitter by the day.


The items held at a friend's house belong to my father. He gave them to the friend to sell on his behalf two years ago. I have ensured these are independently valued and included within the estate calculations.


I am the sole beneficiary.

Thanks for the clarification. It really does not sound as if you were ever expecting your father to pay. So quite how you can now claim it as a debt to the estate is difficult to understand. I just can’t see HMR&C accepting it as a debt of the estate.

Owain_Moneysaver

marcusjames wrote: »

Addressing some of the comments, the physio was £50 twice a week and comes in at nearly £7,500 for the 20 months.

So at 40% tax rate you would be down about £3000 in IHT to pay on that amount if the claim's not accepted by HMRC.

I can understand that you expected to be able to sort things out with your father when he returned home but time moved on and circumstances changed.

As I said, I think you have a chance of getting the care home fees accepted by HMRC if you declare them honestly and say they were paid in expectation of your father sorting out reimbursement but there was never any formal acknowledgement of indebtedness. Getting to agree a suitable form of wording with the solicitor-executor is going to be the sticky bit but as an officer of the court he has a duty to ensure the correct amount of tax is paid - and that means not too much, as well as not too little.