Which website to apply for Probate?

ApolloHubble

My mother passed away and left her assets to my sister and me. She had her own house and one bank account. She was divorced from my father. The assets are worth less than £500,000 so it looks like we don't have to pay Inheritance Tax.I have applied for the Tax reference number which has yet to arrive, and also filled out IHT400, 435 plus four others to do with pensions, bank account and house (which I will print off once Tax ref arrives). Once I have this Tax Reference number, am I right in thinking I only send a copy of the Will and Death Cert to HMRC with the IHT forms? Do I also need an official valuation of the house? ( I do have an idea within around £20,000 of its worth). Once that has been assessed, HMRC then provide me with a number for the Grant of Probate either posted or emailed. There appear to be two websites to apply for Probate, one is Dashboard - Apply for probate - GOV.UK, which looks quite straightforward, and the other is Apply for probate with MyHMCTS - GOV.UK, which looks slightly more complex. Are they the same using a different platform? Apart from the £300 fee, are there any other costs to apply for Probate? I believe this should be quite a simple case for HMRC but I just wanted to check. Many thanks for any responses.

maisie_cat

The second one appears to be for practitioners, the first one is the one I used when I did MIL's probate

p00hsticks

ApolloHubble said:

My mother passed away and left her assets to my sister and me. She had her own house and one bank account. She was divorced from my father. The assets are worth less than £500,000 so it looks like we don't have to pay Inheritance Tax.I have applied for the Tax reference number which has yet to arrive, and also filled out IHT400, 435 plus four others to do with pensions, bank account and house (which I will print off once Tax ref arrives). Once I have this Tax Reference number, am I right in thinking I only send a copy of the Will and Death Cert to HMRC with the IHT forms? Do I also need an official valuation of the house? ( I do have an idea within around £20,000 of its worth). Once that has been assessed, HMRC then provide me with a number for the Grant of Probate either posted or emailed. There appear to be two websites to apply for Probate, one is Dashboard - Apply for probate - GOV.UK, which looks quite straightforward, and the other is Apply for probate with MyHMCTS - GOV.UK, which looks slightly more complex. Are they the same using a different platform? Apart from the £300 fee, are there any other costs to apply for Probate? I believe this should be quite a simple case for HMRC but I just wanted to check. Many thanks for any responses.

I've not had the complication of IHT forms with the estates I dealt with, but I think you are conflating two different  government departments. HMRC deal with Inheritance Tax, and HMCTS (HM Courts and Tribunal Service) deal with Probate Applications. 

As it sounds like you are needing to use your late mothers RNRB allowance you need to do all the inheritance tax stull with HMRC first, even though there may not be any IHT to pay. When HMRC are satisfied that any IHT due has been paid, they'll issue a code which you'll then need to to start the separate probate application with HMCTS.

As far as I'm aware you don;t send the will to HMRC - you'll be asked to send it to HMCTS at the end of the probate application. You may not need a death certificate if the person died in England or Wales as they can check it electronically if the deah was more than a few months ago - if they need one , again they will list it to be sent at the end of the probate application. 

With regard to the house valuation, how accurate it needs to be depends partly on what is going to happen to the property. If it is sold as soon as probate is obtained for more than was declared at probate, then there would be a potential Capital Gains Tax liability for the estate, so you donlt want to undervalue it. I've seen recommiendations to get thre estate agent valuations and take an average, or alternatively to pay for a professional ' red book; valuation for a RICS surveyor as this is least liely to be challenged by HMRC. 

RAS

Just to confirm that the assets including the house exceed £325k? So you need the residential allowance? 

How close are you to £500k?

AP3

To answer one of your questions, probate costs £300. You'll get a probate document to show to banks etc. You can order more of these at extra cost, but they're on a couple of quid each from memory. I order 10, and only needed one!

ApolloHubble

RAS said:

Just to confirm that the assets including the house exceed £325k? So you need the residential allowance? 

How close are you to £500k?

at around £365000

RAS

So if you've got three EA estimates of sale price, choose or go close to the highest one. 

ApolloHubble

RAS said:

Just to confirm that the assets including the house exceed £325k? So you need the residential allowance? 

How close are you to £500k?

around £365000

ApolloHubble

p00hsticks said:

ApolloHubble said:

My mother passed away and left her assets to my sister and me. She had her own house and one bank account. She was divorced from my father. The assets are worth less than £500,000 so it looks like we don't have to pay Inheritance Tax.I have applied for the Tax reference number which has yet to arrive, and also filled out IHT400, 435 plus four others to do with pensions, bank account and house (which I will print off once Tax ref arrives). Once I have this Tax Reference number, am I right in thinking I only send a copy of the Will and Death Cert to HMRC with the IHT forms? Do I also need an official valuation of the house? ( I do have an idea within around £20,000 of its worth). Once that has been assessed, HMRC then provide me with a number for the Grant of Probate either posted or emailed. There appear to be two websites to apply for Probate, one is Dashboard - Apply for probate - GOV.UK, which looks quite straightforward, and the other is Apply for probate with MyHMCTS - GOV.UK, which looks slightly more complex. Are they the same using a different platform? Apart from the £300 fee, are there any other costs to apply for Probate? I believe this should be quite a simple case for HMRC but I just wanted to check. Many thanks for any responses.

I've not had the complication of IHT forms with the estates I dealt with, but I think you are conflating two different  government departments. HMRC deal with Inheritance Tax, and HMCTS (HM Courts and Tribunal Service) deal with Probate Applications. 

As it sounds like you are needing to use your late mothers RNRB allowance you need to do all the inheritance tax stull with HMRC first, even though there may not be any IHT to pay. When HMRC are satisfied that any IHT due has been paid, they'll issue a code which you'll then need to to start the separate probate application with HMCTS.

As far as I'm aware you don;t send the will to HMRC - you'll be asked to send it to HMCTS at the end of the probate application. You may not need a death certificate if the person died in England or Wales as they can check it electronically if the deah was more than a few months ago - if they need one , again they will list it to be sent at the end of the probate application. 

With regard to the house valuation, how accurate it needs to be depends partly on what is going to happen to the property. If it is sold as soon as probate is obtained for more than was declared at probate, then there would be a potential Capital Gains Tax liability for the estate, so you donlt want to undervalue it. I've seen recommiendations to get thre estate agent valuations and take an average, or alternatively to pay for a professional ' red book; valuation for a RICS surveyor as this is least liely to be challenged by HMRC. 

Yes I've now booked and paid for a Red Book Valuation. Estate Agents recommended it and I don't, for the sake of £300 want to have HMRC getting sniffy.

RAS

Then get three estate agents to quote for sale and use the upper price for IHT. Look much more closely at contract before choosing who to engage.

ApolloHubble

AP3 said:

To answer one of your questions, probate costs £300. You'll get a probate document to show to banks etc. You can order more of these at extra cost, but they're on a couple of quid each from memory. I order 10, and only needed one!

That's great. I knew there was a £300 fee but thought I would have to pay another few thousand. It does make you wonder how solicitors can justify charging up to 5%!