Timelines for finalisation of IHT during Covid19

josephine82

Hi
Does anyone have any experience of how long it is taking HMRC to finalise matters surrounding estates/IHT in the current circumstances? Due to Brexit, my dad's house took a long time to sell last year, and it ended up selling for £30k less than the initial value declared to HMRC (I just gave in and accepted a cash offer with quick completion to get it done) and our solicitor made an error on the IHT form on the balance of one of the bank accounts, so we overpaid the IHT.  Solicitor submitted the Corrective Accounts and loss of sale on Land form in March and is waiting for an acknowledgement. She says she can't submit the final request for clearance certificate until she has acknowledgement of these two forms.  She advised that she doesn't even think HMRC are dealing with estates at the moment so this could still take months. I'm wondering if all resources have been diverted into dealing with Covid related matters? 
Could anyone advise how long this process of IHT correction would usually take and how long it usually takes to obtain the clearance certificate? We are coming up on two years since my Dad died and its just something I want to draw a line under now. I hope I've got all the right information, its been mind boggling to navigate this process to be honest. 
Thanks
Jo

Brynsam

Your solicitor's just answered your question - probably months. I appreciate you'd like to see everything finalised, but this is one of those occasions where the annoying answer is 'have patience' (and probably quite a lot of it!).

wizzywilc

I have been waiting since 5 February for a refund of IHT arising from changes in share prices since the date of death. I thought it fair enough that this wasn't at the top of HMRCs priorities, and was pleased to get a letter dated 18 May asking for account details so they could transfer the refund. I replied the same day. A fortnight later I rang the HMRC helpline and was told that it can take 3 weeks for letters to HMRC to appear on the system, then another 3 weeks to actually make the payment. I will check again if the money hasn't appeared on the next couple of weeks, just in case my letter never arrived. I've been doing probate myself, so there's no solicitor to create any delay in the chain. Like the OP, I really just want this sorted so I can finalise the estate and make the final distribution.

josephine82

Brynsam said:

Your solicitor's just answered your question - probably months. I appreciate you'd like to see everything finalised, but this is one of those occasions where the annoying answer is 'have patience' (and probably quite a lot of it!).

Thanks, I think it was more that the solicitor said she didn't know but her guess was months, so I just wanted to know if anyone else had actual experience of dealing with them recently in this regard. I do understand being patient (this isn't a helpful response tbh) but it is very difficult when there are zero published timelines or expectations for working with HMRC. I just want to close out what has been a very complicated and difficult process after a sudden death). 

wizzywilc said:

I have been waiting since 5 February for a refund of IHT arising from changes in share prices since the date of death. I thought it fair enough that this wasn't at the top of HMRCs priorities, and was pleased to get a letter dated 18 May asking for account details so they could transfer the refund. I replied the same day. A fortnight later I rang the HMRC helpline and was told that it can take 3 weeks for letters to HMRC to appear on the system, then another 3 weeks to actually make the payment. I will check again if the money hasn't appeared on the next couple of weeks, just in case my letter never arrived. I've been doing probate myself, so there's no solicitor to create any delay in the chain. Like the OP, I really just want this sorted so I can finalise the estate and make the final distribution.

Kudos to you for doing probate yourself! I thought about it, but my dad's estate was complex, with money in so many places, shares, pensions, complex health insurance issues and some issues with the will, it was the right decision for us to pay a solictor to administer it. And I'm glad we did. I barely managed to work afterwards let along make important financial decisions! I hope your payment comes through soon. 

Marcon

josephine82 said:

Brynsam said:

Your solicitor's just answered your question - probably months. I appreciate you'd like to see everything finalised, but this is one of those occasions where the annoying answer is 'have patience' (and probably quite a lot of it!).

Thanks, I think it was more that the solicitor said she didn't know but her guess was months, so I just wanted to know if anyone else had actual experience of dealing with them recently in this regard. I do understand being patient (this isn't a helpful response tbh) but it is very difficult when there are zero published timelines or expectations for working with HMRC. I just want to close out what has been a very complicated and difficult process after a sudden death). 

You say it isn't a helpful response, but actually it is - because that's the reality you have to deal with. Soft soaping you by giving spurious and groundless 'assurances' that it will all happen quickly simply raises false hopes and you then have to cope with the disappointment that some stranger on the internet couldn't correctly guess what might happen.

josephine82

Marcon said:

josephine82 said:

Brynsam said:

Your solicitor's just answered your question - probably months. I appreciate you'd like to see everything finalised, but this is one of those occasions where the annoying answer is 'have patience' (and probably quite a lot of it!).

Thanks, I think it was more that the solicitor said she didn't know but her guess was months, so I just wanted to know if anyone else had actual experience of dealing with them recently in this regard. I do understand being patient (this isn't a helpful response tbh) but it is very difficult when there are zero published timelines or expectations for working with HMRC. I just want to close out what has been a very complicated and difficult process after a sudden death). 

You say it isn't a helpful response, but actually it is - because that's the reality you have to deal with. Soft soaping you by giving spurious and groundless 'assurances' that it will all happen quickly simply raises false hopes and you then have to cope with the disappointment that some stranger on the internet couldn't correctly guess what might happen.

I was just asking if anyone had any actual experiences of this process. Not asking a stranger to guess for me, I can do that myself. Wishing I hadn’t asked the question now. I can’t seem to delete this post or close it. Sorry to have bothered you.