Form IHT406: not enough rows

JamesRobinson48

As I mentioned on another thread, my Dad died last week and I'm 100% sure there is IHT to pay. I've read the HMRC IHT guidelines but this is all new to me. So please continue to bear with me, and thanks in advance to the experts out there.

Form IHT406 (bank accounts, NS&I, etc) has insufficient rows to report all of my Dad's savings accounts. Just one example, box 4 for other NS&I products has only three rows, and each row asks for a certificate number. Dad had ~50 index linked certificates (ILCs), each with its own certificate number.  The rubric says that in such a case I should "fill in another copy of this form".  But I don't think that's any solution in Dad's case, as it would require 17 IHT406 forms!  Is it OK to provide one total figure for ILCs, and refer to a separate attached sheet listing them all individually?  Otherwise, is suitable commercial software readily available that facilitates reporting a larger number of rows?  If so, any recommendations appreciated.  Or, practically speaking, is suitable commercial software only available to law firms?  Looking at the other IHT forms, I might also have a similar problem with IHT403 (gifts) and IHT411 (S&S investments).  I'm sure this must come up all the time and hopefully there is a consensus good practice?

SoozyJ22

Yes, that should be fine.

We photocopied the list of certificates sent by NS&I and sent that, then on IHT406 entered as:

Name of product: Index Linked Savings certificates (22 of)
Certificate number: see separate sheet
Amount including interest ... : total of all 22 certificates

For other certificate types where only a couple were held, we just included both certificate numbers in the certificate number box and the total amount at the end.

This was just a couple of months ago and seems to have been accepted ok (IHT paid and probate granted, though I think they have another month or so to look in detail). 

JamesRobinson48

Thanks @SoozyJ22  that's a great help!

Please may I also ask, did you find NS&I Bereavement line reasonably helpful?  I ask because their website doesn't seem to give clear information about their bereavement process. It basically just asks people to send in a claims form, and I'm months away from being able to do that. At the moment, I only want to inform them that my Dad died and ask them to send me a valuation as of the date of his death.

Also, on the subject of ILCs specifically, should I report for probate the most recent annual anniversary value of each ILC?  Or will NS&I provide me with figures that include indexation covering the months from the latest anniversary date up to the date of death?  I could understand the latter may be more correct?

SoozyJ22

I think my brother reported the death to them initially, but with my contact details so I can't say much about that initial process, but I've had to call a couple of times and they've always been helpful. If you give them a call to let them know about your Dad's death they will send you some documents with details of the accounts held as well as a claims form to be sent back once you have probate. 

For some reason the initial information they sent me grouped the ILSCs into 5s with a combined balance for each group but I phoned them to request a breakdown of each individual account and I think that's what I included with the IHT forms. This included any interest or index linking accrued up to the date of death which is what you'll need for the IHT forms. 

It's not immediately obvious from what I was sent, but you are able to transfer some (or all) of the certificates to beneficiaries if you want to. The cash in form mentions a transfer form, but when I spoke to the helpline to request one they said to just include a covering letter listing which ones we want to transfer and that would be sufficient. I'm sending the form and letter tomorrow so not sure how that will all work out just yet. 

The only other thing to mention is that no documentation has included the maturity dates of the certificates, which may not be important to you, but we used as a factor when deciding which ones to transfer. Fortunately my Dad had kept meticulous records up until about 18 months ago so we were able to work these out ourselves, but you may want to request that information from them too if you don't already have it and think it would be useful. 

JamesRobinson48

Thanks again @SoozyJ22 for such useful information.

It's great to get your confirmation that ILCs can be individually transferred to beneficiaries. Based on what you've kindly told me, I have in mind sharing them all out 50:50 with my sister. She might prefer to inherit those certificates which mature sooner, and if so I'll take all the others. BTW, luckily, as LPA attorney for the past few years I've been tracking these ILCs like a hawk, so I have comprehensive data about the maturities.