Finalising estate and post-probate contact from HMRC in current situation.

wizzywilc

I am the executor of an estate where IHT was paid, and probate granted in December 2018. I distributed the greater part of the estate in summer 2019, following the sale of a property. It took some time to sell a few remaining assets and it wasn't until early February this year that I submitted IHT 35, relating to losses on the sale of shares, to HMRC. I chased them up in early March and was told they were then looking at the case.

HMRC have rather more important concerns at the moment, and both the beneficiaries and I are happy for this to wait at the back of the queue - the sum involved is a few 100£. I would like to make a further interim distribution, and provide beneficiaries with interim copies of the accounts, leaving just a token amount in the estate bank account.
I'd be interested to know whether anyone is hearing from HMRC about post-probate matters at the moment, and of course of any pitfalls in my proposed course of action.

xylophone

Relative says he had to wait around eight weeks for the IHT 35 claim to be met (but this was pre corona lockdown).

The estate account is still open as there is a possibility of a very small amount still being due to the estate - this will go to one beneficiary who is prepared to wait and see.

However, this did not prevent his distributing the bulk of the bequests - I can see no reason why you could not do likewise.

PeterE17

I have been waiting for seven weeks (as at 16 April 2020) for an HMRC "informal" payment slip to remit few hundred pounds of tax due on savings interest in the period of administration. The payment slip should have reached me just before the major lockdown began, but it didn't arrive, and now, like wizzywilc, I am prepared to sit back and wait. HMRC are welcome to contact me if they want their cash, but it's likely to get overlooked if if I should fall victim to coronavirus ... and if that happens I will be in no position to worry. 

CassieA

My brother and I have an outstanding IHT bill on my late mother's estate , having paid half the amount early to fast track probate and enable selling of her home to pay the rest of the bill. The first half of money and documentation was submitted at the end of January and HMRC took until 15 April to send the relevant confirmation information to the Probate Office (and this only happened because after several interventions from me I sent it myself directly to the probate office). In parallel with this the government announced restrictions on sale of properties in March and we lost our buyers. HMRC still expects payment at the end of this month despite being told that these delays have meant that we have not been able to raise the money yet due to these issues. I have been told there will be a penalty if payment is not made on time. Is anyone aware of any penalty free extension of the rules on payment of IHT in view of coronavirus issues?

hjd

Not to do with coronavirus, but when I submitted the IHT forms for my mother's estate, they were received and logged by HMRC on 2/4/19. They then forgot about them until I finally got through to someone on 20/6/19 when they started to do something about them.
Because I had opted to pay some IHT from her National Savings certificates, I had filled in the forms for this to be done directly. Due to HMRC's delays this money then arrived late. Had it been processed on the timetable set out on HMRC website, the IHT would have been paid in time.
HMRC charged me interest for not paying the full amount of IHT on time, but this was cancelled by them on appeal.
Hope that helps a bit.