Unexplained cash transfers

BreakfastTea18

I am applying for Letters Of Administration for my mum's estate. Somewhat complicated situation as explained in other threads. 

I have bank statements going back 7 years and have noted sums totalling around 28k being transferred into her account about 6 years ago. 

She (and my late dad at that time) were both on state pensions and my dad had a very small private pension. 

The transfers appear to have come from 2 l different accounts but I am confident these weren't my parents savings accounts,in fact they didn't have any. 

Should this 'income' have been declared to HMRC at the time and should I be looking at it a bit more closely or can I just ignore this ? 

 

user1977

Declared as what? It's only income for Income Tax purposes if it's a salary, profit from self-employment, or interest/dividends from investments.

BreakfastTea18

I don't know what it was, that's the issue. From your reply it sounds like no income tax liability needs to be considered. The sum was incongruous with their income which was 90percent state benefits. 

McKneff

Please dont take offence where I don't think any was intended. 
Hoenir was, I believe trying to save you wasting more time than you need.
You were making the situation 'wholly consuming and difficult' yourself. H was trying to stop you wasting your time going forward,

BreakfastTea18

Thank you, I appreciate your advice.
Thank you for explaining without using emotive language that is upsetting and unnecessary. I'm going through enough at the moment with two very recent close family bereavements and the estate situation is complicated.  I'll park this matter and concentrate on trying to resolve the other issues. 

BooJewels

I would reiterate what others have said - don't make already difficult situations any more complicated than they already are.  If you didn't happen to have access to 7 years worth of bank statements, you'd be none the wiser about these transactions. 

You only really need to consider the latest payments in, in respect of pensions and any other benefits - and if any might cover any period just after death that they might want back.  I was asked for repayment of 1 week of pension and pension credit almost exactly a year after my aunt passed, so maybe put any such amounts aside, if you think there was any over-payment.

bobster2

You're quite right to have a look through these bank statements.

The most important reasons to look back at statements for the previous 7 years would be...

- To establish whether the deceased made gifts to other people that might need to be included as part of the estate for the purposes of inheritance tax calculations (not the case here by the sound of it).

- To find out whether the deceased potentially had any debts that could be still outstanding and therefore might need to be settled from the estate.

So the concern with unexplained deposits could be - are these perhaps loans of some sort that could have outstanding balances that need to be repaid? So it would be worth checking on where these funds came from. Are there any regular outgoings that could be loan repayments?

BreakfastTea18

There isn't enough liquid cash in the estate to settle all outstanding liabilities (DWP is one of them) the property and land will need to be sold (which is what I want to do as expediently as possible) however that isn't going to happen any time soon.  I'm in the for long haul it seems. 

Hoenir

bobster2 said:

- are these perhaps loans of some sort that could have outstanding balances that need to be repaid? So it would be worth checking on where these funds came from.

That's why posting a notice of the death in the Gazette is the long trodden route.  The administor / executor of the Estate is deemed to have performed their legal duties by doing so. Creditors of any note will step forward fairly quickly.  

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/

BreakfastTea18

bobster2 said:

You're quite right to have a look through these bank statements.

The most important reasons to look back at statements for the previous 7 years would be...

- To establish whether the deceased made gifts to other people that might need to be included as part of the estate for the purposes of inheritance tax calculations (not the case here by the sound of it).

- To find out whether the deceased potentially had any debts that could be still outstanding and therefore might need to be settled from the estate.

So the concern with unexplained deposits could be - are these perhaps loans of some sort that could have outstanding balances that need to be repaid? So it would be worth checking on where these funds came from. Are there any regular outgoings that could be loan repayments?

Thank you, you have explained my thought process far more eloquently than I was able to express in words. 

The reason I have the statements is that my late dad's affairs weren't entirely wound up by my mum, he passed away 4 years ago and it appears there are outstanding matters,albeit not significant. 

I don't think they were loans but the details are scant on the statements. As it was a large sum of money it caught my attention. 

Marcon

Kimlisa1 said:

I am applying for Letters Of Administration for my mum's estate. Somewhat complicated situation as explained in other threads. 

I have bank statements going back 7 years and have noted sums totalling around 28k being transferred into her account about 6 years ago. 

She (and my late dad at that time) were both on state pensions and my dad had a very small private pension. 

The transfers appear to have come from 2 l different accounts but I am confident these weren't my parents savings accounts,in fact they didn't have any. 

Should this 'income' have been declared to HMRC at the time and should I be looking at it a bit more closely or can I just ignore this ? 

 

Have you asked their bank if they can throw any light on the transfers in - or could you post any reference that was given in relation to these, just in case anyone recognises anything about them? From what you've said, and the amount of money, it does look uncomfortably possible that it was a loan.

Have you checked at the Land Registry to see if any charges are registered against the property, especially if they are around the time the money came in? https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/land-registry is the site to use - much cheaper than those with remarkably similar sounding names which add a fee to the fairly modest Land Registry costs.