Donations to charity before probate 9 February 2019 at 2:03PM edited 30 November -1 at 1:00AM in Deaths, Funerals & Probate 16 replies 1.6K views

Boleyn19

Hi I hope the probate experts can help.

My brother and I are joint executors and sole beneficiaries of our mother's estate. The value of the estate is going to be over £1m from a house, ISAs, unit trusts etc. There is nothing valuable in the house. Only one item of jewellery has a resale value over £500.

My brother and I want to donate most of the house contents to charity. Can we do this before grant of probate if we get a receipt of donation from the charities - particularly her clothes and trinkets?

Thanks in advance.

Keep_pedalling

Yes you can do that.

Yorkshireman99

Boleyn19 wrote: »

Hi I hope the probate experts can help.

My brother and I are joint executors and sole beneficiaries of our mother's estate. The value of the estate is going to be over £1m from a house, ISAs, unit trusts etc. There is nothing valuable in the house. Only one item of jewellery has a resale value over £500.

My brother and I want to donate most of the house contents to charity. Can we do this before grant of probate if we get a receipt of donation from the charities - particularly her clothes and trinkets?

Thanks in advance.

A houseful of furniture and personal belongings does have a value albeit small. You will need to declare the value for probate regardless of it going to charity,

Boleyn19

Yes I have gone through the whole house putting value on things even if £2 for a similar one sold on Ebay.

Robin9

Boleyn19 wrote: »

Yes I have gone through the whole house putting value on things even if £2 for a similar one sold on Ebay.

Having done so - was the total value under £1000.?

It may be an old wives tale but I understood that it was acceptable to simply enter £1000 for miscellaneous household effects.

dresdendave

Boleyn19 wrote: »

Yes I have gone through the whole house putting value on things even if £2 for a similar one sold on Ebay.

My understanding is that you just put a nominal total value for household items, rather than waste time valuing each individual item, assuming you haven't got a few Picassos hanging on the walls.

Boleyn19

I've been overly generous and put total house contents at around £4k.

Yorkshireman99

Robin9 wrote: »

Having done so - was the total value under £1000.?

It may be an old wives tale but I understood that it was acceptable to simply enter £1000 for miscellaneous household effects.

The reality is that with an estate of that value it is improbable that the house will not contain some items of value. Remember that HMR&C are not fools. Trying to be too greedy by undervaluing can trigger awkward questions particularly if the items have been disposed of. There are no standard figures since each radiate is different. It is not unheard of for a humble a bode to contain some valuable items. As ever a degree of common sense is called for. Glib remarksthat things can just be ignored just confirm the poster’s lack of real world knowledge.

Boleyn19

I have gone through all items. There is only one item worth more than £500. A few other pieces have been valued and are all under £500. There is some china that could resell for c£50 a piece. I've itemised them on the inventory. The furniture doesn't have fire safety certificates. Searches on Ebay for sales of similar furniture shows a very low resale value. We are going to take photos of rooms and cupboards. Her clothes would not sell but I have put these at a value of £50. She didn't have a car.

theoretica

There is no inheritance tax due on gifts to charity in someone's will, so HMRC will realise they won't benefit whatever the value. Even if there were a Picasso and a diamond tiara or two in the charity donations the most it would take would be a deed of variation to remove HMRC's interest - there is no money in it for them so no benefit to quibbling the worth of household goods.

getmore4less

The only time the values of assets that go to charity matter is if you are trying to claim the reduced IHT.