Household and personal goods IHT 407

tenzin_2

Need help. 

I’m a complete idiot, but I can’t afford a solicitor so trying to do probate without a will.
This tax form about furniture antiques.
My dads furniture is unsellable, urine stained couches, bed etc. Absolutely unsellable.
But he does have two Apple Watches, Two IPads.
The jewellery is worth less than £500, he put his signet ring on me, a couple of weeks before he died and I don’t want to sell it. I haven’t taken it off. I think it’s worth about £200
The four page tax form I printed out looks sort of archaic. Surely there’s a more up to date one with tech stuff on it.?
Any ideas? 

p00hsticks

Before answering the specifics.....

What makes you think his estate is going to be over the IHT allowance ? 
Who is his estate left to, was he married and if so is his spouse alive or dead ?  

McKneff

No will means probate is not required. 
You need to apply for letters of administration. 
Please go to CAB for advice. Sounds like you need some. 

tenzin_2

Isn’t form PA1A Probabte application the form where you apply for letters of administration 

RAS

What is the value of the estate? IHT allowances can be up to £1m.

But that depends on

Married or widowed? Divorced or single? Surviving spouse?

Home owner or renter?

poppystar

Like many of the IHT400 forms it may well be the case that only one small part of the form applies. I doubt you would get much for second hand tech and if there is no valuable jewellery then a single lump sum to cover all possessions will be fine and you don’t need to complete the first couple of boxes just the final part. 

You say you are a little unsure of what you are doing so back to basics …are you sure you need to complete the IHT forms at all? Perhaps if you could give rough estimates of the size of the estate it might help. Your father will have his own allowance but if he was widowed and all his wife’s assets had gone to him then there would be up to £650k allowance before you’d need to fill in IHT forms. 

Don’t fret about doing this diy, people will be on here will be happy to help at all stages.

theoretica

For personal effects, the usual advice is just to put a number down for the whole lot. Maybe £500? The tax people are concerned about whether there are any ming vases or collections of gold coins.  Not with the second hand value of two ipads. As others are asking, if the whole estate is under the tax threshold the number won't have any tax consequences at all.

Emmia

The solicitor costs should come out of the estate, you don't need to pay them but obviously if you're a beneficiary then your inheritance will be less as a result.

Keep_pedalling

There is no need to itemise each of his personal items you can just put a nominal sum on them.

But as others have said do you actually need to do an IHT return, what is the approximate value of his estate? What was his marital status? 

tenzin_2

My mum died in 2012, so he was a widower. He owns two houses, and has savings and stocks. Houses probably £600,000, but we are only selling one.And the cash saving takes it over the line. I thought the line was £350,000. There is no paper work for my mum, only her birth and death certificate. He sold her shares and then absorbed or closed her bank accounts, although there is still one joint bank account open.  

If I were to go to our local tax office, would there be someone who would help me fill these forms in? I don’t want to take on a lawyer. I hate those people. We got drained by one a few years ago. 

p00hsticks

tenzin_2 said:

 I thought the line was £350,000. 

The figure is actually £325,000 - but that is not necessarily 'the line'.
 
It sounds like when your mum died she was still married to your dad ? 
And she either left everything to him in her will, or there was no will and so he inherited anything under the intestacy laws ?
If both are true then he also inherited her IHT allowance which takes 'the line' up to £650,000

And there is a further allowance of £175,000 available (plus the same inherited from your mum)  if he has left his home to direct descendants, although I think that does involve filling in some additional paperwork if you need to claim it. . So it's possible for an estate to be worth up to £1 million before any IHT is actually due,  

I don't think local tax offices are a thing anymore - someone else has suggested the Citizens Advice Bureau, which sounds like a good first step (along with this forum) towards getting some help.