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Access to saving account and stocks & shares ISA

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Can an executor have access to a deceased person's cash in a bank account or stocks & shares ISA before paying inheritance tax?  Thanks.

Comments

  • Billxx
    Billxx Posts: 296 Forumite
    Sixth Anniversary 100 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    It will depend on the provider of the account.  Some banks allow access without probate up to a given value.  Some banks insist on probate before any access, in which case you will have to pay any IHT prior to obtaining probate.

    Kind Regards,

    Bill
  • Keep_pedalling
    Keep_pedalling Posts: 20,817 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    If the amount in the account is below the level that the financial institution will release without probate the yes the executor can get the amount held released to them. If probate is required to release it then IHT will need to be paid and probate obtained before it is released.

    If needed to pay IHT you could use the direct payment scheme to have the money released direct to HMRC. 

  • lake888
    lake888 Posts: 32 Forumite
    Fifth Anniversary 10 Posts Name Dropper
    So is direct payment a common practice and straightforward?
  • poseidon1
    poseidon1 Posts: 1,367 Forumite
    1,000 Posts First Anniversary Name Dropper
    lake888 said:
    So is direct payment a common practice and straightforward?
    The DPS has been around 20 years, but in all fairness took awhile for various banks to get their act together to  implement efficiently - see old mse thread below

    https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4645917/iht423-iht-direct-payment-scheme#latest

    The scheme was extended to investment platforms ( last year I think), and it is understood the likes of HL and AJ Bell have now signed up to assist.
  • H657
    H657 Posts: 25 Forumite
    Second Anniversary 10 Posts Photogenic
    lake888 said:
    So is direct payment a common practice and straightforward?
    We used it a couple of months ago to pay IHT from 2 separate banks & also from NS&I. It was very straightforward 
  • SoozyJ22
    SoozyJ22 Posts: 3,268 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    I've used direct payments recently and it was very straightforward apart from the one bank that I sent two IHT423s to and somehow the first page of the second one wasn't scanned so wasn't paid. That was very quickly rectified once I got in touch with them though.

    There are a few places that don't support direct payments though. We were planning to use an Investec savings account, but they don't support direct payments. Fortunately we had NS&I available as an alternative. Investec can also be quite frustrating as they can only be contacted by email and response speeds have varied from one day to two weeks (and then only when I chased). 
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