Continuing with our series about things we think you need to know about applying for Probate, and perhaps some of the practical tips that should be considered.
Be Prepared to Deal with Inheritance Tax Deadlines.
The deadline for any payment of inheritance tax due is, six months from the end of the month of death – so, for somebody who died in May 2020, the deadline to pay the tax would November 30th.
After this date, interest at 2.6% is charged. The deadline for submitting an inheritance tax return is 12 months from the month of death, with a penalty of £100 for late filing.
However, recently HMRC has announced that delays caused by the pandemic, constitute a ‘reasonable excuse’ for late payment of IHT or late submission of the return. The return can now be signed electronically, with a statement by the personal representatives.
You may find in these circumstances that the executor, or indeed the administrator, has to ensure the payment of the IHT before a Grant of Probate is issued by the Probate Registry.
Sometimes estates can be affluent in terms of property, but cash poor, and the IHT cannot be met.
Often an executor in those circumstances will have to go to a bank for a loan for the payment for IHT, but again this is fraught with difficulties.
We have found that dealing with HMRC – IHT Office is extremely slow, in the sense that we have waited several months for answers to queries being raised, that have been raised, and in some instances, once have queried calculations, and reported back to HMRC, we have made little or no progress.
This is of course one of the consequences of the current Covid 19 restrictions, but it continues.
HMRC say that there are not wide spread delays at the moment, but frankly that is not our experience.
We offer a service where, we will draft and provide the appropriate paperwork, for the application for the Grant of Representation to be made.
Please do not hesitate to contact to us if you have any queries on this matter.