Please help me with my IHT 205 FORM

GEZ

Hello
My father has recently died and I am trying to complete the form for inheritance .I have the figure £420,208 as net value for a figure minus J EXEMPTIONS which I am at a loss what figure should go in this box. My mother did not use up the nil rate band so my father inherited her £325000 to add to his making £650000 .So ,please can someone help me what I should put in box J?

Berkshire_Beancounter

Sorry for your loss. I lost both a parent and a parent in law around this time last year so we had our own head scratching moments over how to fill in the IHT forms.

Google is probably your friend here: looking at the HMRC website for the notes to filling in IHT205, gives the following information as to what goes in box J:

1 If the deceased's will or the rules of intestacy say that the whole estate is to pass to their spouse or civil partner, say so, and write the value from box G in box J unless there are any assets in section 9 which do not pass, or have not passed, to the spouse or civil partner. Lifetime gifts would be an example.

2 If the deceased made lifetime gifts to their spouse or civil partner or to a qualifying charity, list the gifts and any exemption to be deducted from them in this box. Also show any exemptions to be deducted from the estate that passes on death. Add all the exemptions together and write the total figure in box J.

3 If there are legacies of £30,000 to the children, with three-quarters of the remainder of the estate passing to the spouse or civil partner and one-quarter to the children, explain that the estate is to devolve in this way, work out how much the spouse or civil partner is to receive and write that value in box J.

4 If the spouse or civil partner is to receive the household and personal goods and the deceased’s home, list these 2 items in this box and write their total value in box J.

5 If there are any legacies to qualifying charities, write the names of the organisations that benefit
in this box. Write the total of all the legacies passing to a qualifying charity in box J. If there is not enough room in the box because there are lots of legacies to different qualifying charities, you only need to list those organisations receiving more than £25,000. For the others, tell us how many other qualifying charities benefit and include one figure for the total of the smaller legacies.

6 If there is a mixture of assets passing to the deceased’s spouse or civil partner and to qualifying charities, tell us as much as you can in this box and write the total amount of exemption in box J. Use box 13 if you need more room.

It sounds like your mum has already passed away, so a lot of box J doesn't apply as it's to do with the deceased bequeathing to their spouse or civil partner (which isn't subject to inheritance tax). So unless your dad had remarried and was leaving anything to a new spouse It looks like you only need to fill in box J if there are legacies left to charity.

If you want to claim the £325k nil rate band unused by your mother, you need to fill in IHT 217:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/371956/iht217.pdf

In the declaration section at the end of the form, tick the second box "I/we declare that the gross value of the estate for Inheritance Tax (see box H on page 5) is less than or equal to twice the excepted estate limit and a claim to transfer unused nil rate band (form IHT217) is attached"

If dad had a property and any direct descendants (sons, daughters) inherit the estate you can claim the additional residence nil rate band of £125k in the current tax year:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/606089/IHT435.pdf

GEZ

Thankyou very much for the information and I will be going through it tomorrow .My brain hurts at the moment and as is always the case at this time of loss the tax collectors make it more stressful giving us calculations to work out without practice
GEZ

Berkshire_Beancounter

Good luck with the forms - experience tells me you can get bogged down in them, especially late at night, but coming back to them fresh in the morning may be helpful.

If there is only one executor you can apply online, which saves having to go to a probate office or a solicitor's office to swear the oath. We did this for both the estates we had to sort out last year, and the online process was a lot easier than the paper forms. (Apologies if you are filing online and I'm telling you the obvious, it wasn't clear from your original post if you were doing paper forms or online.)

Tom99

If you fill in the .pdf forms on your computer, rather than on paper, then all the total/sub total/ and c/f, b/f boxes will complete automatically for you.

GEZ

Thank you for the information TOM ,I APPRECIATE IT

Owain_Moneysaver

If you have a computer with Excel or Openoffice Calc I can send you a blank IHT207 template spreadsheet, which has multiple lines in so you can itemise things for easier reference, then transfer the subtotals to the IHT207.

PM me a working email address if you want it.

Don't rush, be organised. I wrote on every piece of paper (bank statement, etc) which section/box of the IHT207 it related to and filed them in that order. Polypockets are the executor's best friend :-)

GEZ

Good evening everyone, as an update I have been listing assets using Microsoft word office .I did have a word online with a solicitor who confirmed what the kind people here had suggested and I think
once the list of assets and liabilities have been listed on the probate schedule ,then I will be able to apply for probate.
What I need to do is value the house in the next week to finish off the assets list. The next few days I will have to look at the probate application form P A 1 which is another complex form to master. ANY COMMENT WILL BE VERY WELCOME in my next stage of the progress

Cheers to everyone who have participated so far, I always am encouraged by the helpful comments you ALL have been giving here
GEZ

Owain_Moneysaver

Unless your father had loads of relatives, the PA1 should be straightforward.

For the "Assets" section, you can lump things together. The main thing is to account for any properties, eg
House - 1 Acacia Ave £150,000
Savings and Investments £50,000 (This might cover several sections in the IHT205)
Domestic Goods and Furniture £2,000
Gas Bill Paid In Advance £12 (Prepaid utilities in advance are assets of the estate, which is why you need utilities accounts at the date of death or as close as possible)

badger09

If the Estate is anywhere near IHT territory then I'd suggest you have the property professionally valued.

GEZ

On the assets and what the estate consists of in values ,should the bank accounts with the total amount be entered without any bank details in terms of account numbers
Will the probate Registry ask for the estate accounts for probate later on as proof of how I had got to the total amount in each account?
Is there no need to send the documents of accounts supporting the figures to The Probate Registry
Thank you for any help on this in advance GEZ
Calling out for Berkshire Beancounter