Inheritance tax and probate forms

Rodders53

Beware the Council Tax trap of only 6 months 'free' after the grant of probate date.  I'd get the house on the market asap.  It can take an age to get the chain, searches etc.,. all lined up.

Froglet

Rodders53 said:

Beware the Council Tax trap of only 6 months 'free' after the grant of probate date.  I'd get the house on the market asap.  It can take an age to get the chain, searches etc.,. all lined up.

I believe that's only for empty properties.My sister is still living there,has been for 20 years.She is awaiting a hip replacement and once recovered,then she will move out.There are only The 3 of us (another sister ) as beneficiaries  and we aren't in any hurry.

Froglet

Officer_Dibble said:

There are 2 different processes, depending on whether you need the shorter IHT205 or longer IHT400 form. In your case, no tax to pay usually implies IHT 205, but not always - I had to go the IHT400 route despite no tax being payable (which involves a ludicrous number of forms)

Assuming it's IHT205, it looks like the online application's quite easy and as a previous answer has said, they deal with it more quickly if you submit online - just a cover sheet to print and submit with death cert etc as far as I know.

So how will I know for certain which form to use,I thought it was pretty clear cut it you're well under the threshold of 325 k ?

Officer_Dibble

There's an easy to follow list of questions on the gov.uk site that guides you to the right one. As you say it's pretty clear cut if you're well under the threshold.