IHT408 Donation of chattels to charity

nonameuser

As I understand it, under the IHT408 scheme executors are supposed to offer ALL chattels to a registered UK/EU charity if the taxable estate is not to incur an IHT charge on the deceased's household belongings. You cannot pick and chose which items are disposed of. However whichever charity I pick, I find they will not take everything. Far from it in fact: No electrical items, no soft furnishing, no wall furniture, no old books etc etc. They only want the cream. That's fine, I don't mind taking the rest to the dump or putting it in the bin but what would HMRC have to say? The charity is only going to sign a schedule for the items they take. Then there is the possibility that another charity might take some of the items the first charity wouldn't accept. Can I deal with more than one charity? The scheme is not clear and nor does the guvmint give sufficient guidance, hence I am coming to the gurus on MSE for advice! Thank you.

Keep_pedalling

The stuff they don’t want to take has little or no value and HMRC are not going to be interested in you taking this stuff to the recycling centre. 

Linton

Actually some charities will take the lot.  Both AgeUK and BHF have house clearance schemes.

But in any case the notes for completing IHT408 say:
If some, but not all, of the goods are being given to charity, the beneficiaries making the gift should complete the schedule of items to show which items are being gifted and the value of those items.

nonameuser

Thanks for your replies. I have chosen the option: "all the household and personal goods go to the charity or charities shown below". Then I will complete the schedule of items with a value (should that be the replacement value or the secondhand sale value?)  and I will also prepare a separate, more detailed schedule which the charity/charities will sign to say that they have been offered these items even if they do not accept them all. Bear in mind that the items they do not accept will have some, albeit negligible, value and because I am offering everything I do not want to be paying tax on the items they don't cart away! Does this seem a suitable way of going about it please? 

Keep_pedalling

nonameuser said:

Thanks for your replies. I have chosen the option: "all the household and personal goods go to the charity or charities shown below". Then I will complete the schedule of items with a value (should that be the replacement value or the secondhand sale value?)  and I will also prepare a separate, more detailed schedule which the charity/charities will sign to say that they have been offered these items even if they do not accept them all. Bear in mind that the items they do not accept will have some, albeit negligible, value and because I am offering everything I do not want to be paying tax on the items they don't cart away! Does this seem a suitable way of going about it please? 

You don’t need to list every item you can lump them in as a nominal sum unless there are any really valuable items among them. Value is the second hand value, and you don’t include anything that ends up at the RC because they have no value. 

Most people’s second hand stuff has little value, and HMRC are not going to query items of furniture or washing machines. 

nonameuser

Keep_pedalling, Thanks for your continued advice, from one avid cyclist to another!