Inheritance tax delay

Pheriche

My father-in-law died in February 2020. His solicitors were appointed executors in his will. For various reasons the winding up of the estate has taken some time, and is still ongoing: he and his partner had separate wills, but complex interlinked finances; the partner's family contested her will, which held up his; there was joint property to be sold and an intervening global pandemic &c.

The solicitor has been amiable, but quite uncommunicative. My wife is not her client, and the estate is apparently being administered for a fixed fee, so I guess she is not motivated to spend time providing updates.

What we have gathered so far is that the last of the property was sold in March and the 'inheritance tax file' submitted to HMRC no later than April. So it has now been at least 4 months with HMRC. Does this sound anything like reasonable? The estate is quite big, but not enormous - the tax bill will be about £200k. As the solicitor seems to be just waiting, is there anything we can do to expedite the process or complain to HMRC?

ossie48

The timing seems reasonable in todays circumstances. We submitted our IHT forms in late April. We received our Inheritance tax bill in late May which we paid £170k. We have since received further correspondence for us to confirm the finer details of investments and additionally a query over the valuation of a property. 

What exactly would your complaint be about ? Your solicitor needs to apply for probate but that can only happen three weeks after the original Inheritance tax papers /file is submitted. 

poppystar

ossie48 said:

The timing seems reasonable in todays circumstances. We submitted our IHT forms in late April. We received our Inheritance tax bill in late May which we paid £170k. We have since received further correspondence for us to confirm the finer details of investments and additionally a query over the valuation of a property. 

What exactly would your complaint be about ? Your solicitor needs to apply for probate but that can only happen three weeks after the original Inheritance tax papers /file is submitted. 

Presumably if properties have been sold probate has already been granted? 

Pheriche

Probate was granted three years ago, and as I understand it, a provisional payment of Inheritance tax has already been made, also years ago. We are now waiting for HMRC to respond to the solicitor's final IHT statement, which was sent over four months ago. What we would like is for HMRC to respond to it and failing that to somehow raise a complaint that it has taken this long.