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Donations to charity before probate
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Boleyn19
Posts: 119 Forumite

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.
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.
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Comments
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Yes you can do that.0
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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.0 -
Yes I have gone through the whole house putting value on things even if £2 for a similar one sold on Ebay.0
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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.Never pay on an estimated bill. Always read and understand your bill0 -
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.0 -
I've been overly generous and put total house contents at around £4k.0
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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.0 -
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.0
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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.But a banker, engaged at enormous expense,Had the whole of their cash in his care.
Lewis Carroll0 -
The only time the values of assets that go to charity matter is if you are trying to claim the reduced IHT.0
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