Inheritance tax

deanscroft

Can someone help with this one please. I am named as Executor in my Aunts will. Her only sizable asset is her house which is worth around 400,000 pounds so Inheritance tax will be due. The house is left intact in the will to one person. I understand that I must pay the inheritance tax due before I can distribute the assets but there is not sufficient cash to pay the tax without selling the house which can't be done before probate! Also I have read about exectutors loans but this is not an option as I live abroad and have no assets in the UK to secure a loan. 

kuratowski

Is there enough cash to pay 10% of the tax?  I think you might be able to pay in instalments?

https://www.gov.uk/paying-inheritance-tax/yearly-instalments

WaywardDriver

If the "one person" is the aunt's child/grandchild then no IHT. If she was a widow and inherited house from husband then again probably no IHT.

Keep_pedalling

More detail needed, are you the main beneficiary? If not in your situation I would renounce and leave it to the person inheriting the house (unless they are a minor). Administering an estate from another country is going to be a pain.

Bizzywizard

Hi,

My husbands Aunt and Uncle have made my husband and their other nephew executors of their estate (no paper work as arrived yet). They have no children of their own, as they could not have any. We love my husbands aunt and uncle...but the tax upfront due really worries me, once they pass. We do not know the other nephew (uncles sides of his family).All we know is that he has a basic job.

We are very grateful, that they would leave half their two houses to us (they are in greater London) so the tax bill will be huge. We have no issues with the tax to pay per say...but I just cannot see how we could afford to pay or the other nephew up front. The estate will be worth over 1 million currently!! Plus cars.

Any suggestions? Or can the nephews refuse to be executors and let someone else deal with it a solicitor for instance? Can a Solicitor defer the tax payment, until the properties have completed.

poppystar

The nephews could stay as executors but employ a solicitor to do the work rather than bow out completely.

I’m sure this is something solicitors have come across before and they have a way around it. If there is money as well as property that may cover some of it too and I believe there are arrangements for releasing that for IHT purposes. 

Keep_pedalling

For future reference you really should open a new thread rather than adding a question to an existing one.

Where IHT is due but the estate has few liquid assets, then you can pay IHT in instalments. The instalments can be spread over 10 years, but interest is payable so the sooner you can sell the properties the better.