Inheritance Tax -Joint Bank Account

WeepingWillow25

Hi everyone,
Please be gentle, as recently lost my dad and I'm still reeling from it. 

My dad passed away 5 weeks ago, he hadn't set anything up in terms of wills or anything, but I had a joint bank account with him which was all his money. He often liked me to do online shopping for him so that's why we had it, and I never used the money for myself. The only outgoing to me was £100 a month for a premium bond account he wanted set up for my daughter.

As I say he passed 5 weeks ago he had an illness for a couple of months and we thought he was getting better, but then became ill and passed in the space of a week.

I haven't brought myself to cancel his state pension yet and I know they will take back any over payments and thats fine as it's all just in his account.
Im just wondering where I stand in terms of inheritance tax, there is about 373,000 in this joint account. 
He wasn't in any kind of debt and didn't own a home. Will they take tax from this account on anything over 325,000? 

It seems such a shame, he worked 45 years and had only 4 years of retirement, the state pension is gone, I'm guessing his work place pension will be gone and now they seem likely to take just under 25,000 if my calculations are correct.
Any help would be appreciated as my understanding of money matters is useless at the best of times, let alone when I'm grieving x

WeepingWillow25

Just to add my mum passed away in 2009 and I'm an only child.

sneedshelp

Was your dad a widower ?

Need to go to the dentist but I will come back.

WeepingWillow25

Thank you, yes he was a widower. Good luck at the dentist. 

doodling

Hi,

What happened to your Mum's assets when she died?  Were your Mum and Dad married?

If everything that belonged to your Mum was passed to your Dad and they were married then her £325k allowance can be passed to him giving a total IHT allowance of £650k.

Flugelhorn

doodling said:

Hi,

What happened to your Mum's assets when she died?  Were your Mum and Dad married?

If everything that belonged to your Mum was passed to your Dad and they were married then her £325k allowance can be passed to him giving a total IHT allowance of £650k.

if he only took his private pension for a few years it is possible that there may be some money related to that, depends what sort of scheme it was. 

doesn't sound like you will pay any IHT 

WeepingWillow25

Hi thanks so much for your reply. Yes my mum and dad were married when she died. Honestly she had very little assets because she had severe epilepsy and memory loss, so hadn't worked for years. My dad basically supported her. I think when she died he was able to receive a short term payment of some kind(wasn't much)...maybe something to do with her state pension, so sorry but not sure of the specifics of what the payment was.

Keep_pedalling

WeepingWillow25 said:

Thank you, yes he was a widower. Good luck at the dentist. 

Sorry for your loss.

If he inherited your mother’s entire estate you will be able to claim her her full transferable nil rate band meaning his estate would need to exceed £650k before any IHT would be taken.

Although this was a joint account all of it was part of his estate. It was unwise to hold such a large amount in a single account especially if it was a current account earning little if any interest. Because of the amount I would play this by the book. Speak to the bereavement team at the bank inform them of his death and tell them that although this is a joint account all of the money belonged to your father. They may ask you to apply for letters of administration so that they can release the money to you, but it is not a difficult process to do this on line.

Do you have any siblings?

WeepingWillow25

Thank you for your condolences, I'm struggling to get through all these money matters while grieving so I really appreciate your help.
My dad was Muslim so interest is considered a no-no. Really I'm crying writing this just thinking about him because it was a large amount to have in his account doing nothing, but he just didn't know what to do with it and this will sound strange but sometimes I think he didn't ever consider he might die especially as before his diagnosis he was in great health

WeepingWillow25

Flugelhorn said:

doodling said:

Hi,

What happened to your Mum's assets when she died?  Were your Mum and Dad married?

If everything that belonged to your Mum was passed to your Dad and they were married then her £325k allowance can be passed to him giving a total IHT allowance of £650k.

if he only took his private pension for a few years it is possible that there may be some money related to that, depends what sort of scheme it was. 

doesn't sound like you will pay any IHT 

He worked for London underground and I have informed them by email about his passing, but haven't received a response yet. Thank you for your reply

RAS

So the basic IHT allowance on your dad's estate is £650k because he inherited mum's allowance, unless she gifted a lot of money in the last 7 years of her life

Your father's gifts to your daughter are below the £3k per annum allowance, so not an issue.

Obviously you need to clarify, but look very unlikely any IHT is owing.