Completing IHT400 - my experience!

Sooz1966

Well, after a sleepless night worrying about completing the form (and 8 supplementary forms!), I've spent the last 2 days on this and it's about done. Once I focused and stopped panicking, it wasn't so bad. Contrary to what it says on gov.uk, ''You cannot save a partly completed form so we suggest you gather all your information together before you begin to fill it in", you can save your work part way through which was a massive relief!

Some puzzling aspects however. As I needed to claim mum's allowances (her death predated dad's), I needed her will and probate which had to be located and downloaded from the official site (for £16). All went well but of course, didn't contain the info I needed for the form...her estate at the time of her death. Who would know this twenty years on?...the only person who would have known is my dad who inherited it all at the time and is, of course, now dead. I just guessed £50k; hope this will be ok as I can't see how it might impact IHT. My mum and dad shared everything so it seems odd to try to calculate her share after so long.

IHT400 also wanted to know how many children and grandchildren dad's survived by. I know there were some children by a previous marriage but no idea on numbers - again, can't see why this is needed or how this might impact IHT as I'm the only beneficiary, so hoping an estimate will suffice!

Also puzzled by the Residence nil rate calculator result. This gave an amount of £300,000 which is the value of the house. I was expecting this to be the total of mum and dad's residence allowances which would be £350,000. Again, I don't think it matters but it's confusing. Especially as you're expected to know the respective allowances at the time of death but not actually use these figures on the form or in your calculations and the first parent's allowances are aligned with the second parent's on their death anyway... unless, I've got this completely wrong somehow??

Just needing another 3hour drive to dad's house now, to see if I can find his house and contents insurance, just in case he'd insured any individual items in his belongings which I've just estimated values for.

I'm well under the IHT threshold with both parents' allowances claimed (£1million!) so a few hundred either way won't make a jot of difference to the outcome but I'm feeling a bit nervous about the whole thing so decided it's best to double-check...am I being overcautious?

Keep_pedalling

If the house is worth less than the combined RBRBs then the value of the house is the maximum that can be claimed, unless you can also apply the downsizing rule against a previous property.

Sooz1966

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81870189#Comment_81870189

Ah yes, that makes complete sense, I haven't done something wrong, thank you. Why do you think they ask you to look up the allowances at the time of death if you don't use these and the first parent's allowances match the second's in practice?

Keep_pedalling

Those earlier rates only really come into play where part of the first spouse’s allowance was used which is not a very common occurrence.

pcgtron

The amount of your Mum's estate that your dad claimed should have been written on the probate form which you send you paid for. There is a number there, you should use that one if I remember correctly

Sooz1966

No unfortunately not. It's just the certificate confirming the granting of probate. The actual application for probate wasn't included in the download from the site so presume isn't available/hasn't been retained.

poppystar

is there not a value of estate showing on the grant of probate?

Sooz1966

Poppystar - your question prompted me to have another look at the certificate and, yes, there it is, in a much smaller, different font at the bottom of the page! God, I'm such a numptie. Wasn't far out with my guesstimate. Thank you!