MyHMCTS has now been updated to comply with the new Inheritance Tax excepted estates regulations.
Updates to MyHMCTS occurred between 1st and 12th January 2022 to ensure practitioners comply with regulations, during which time, HMCTS requested that submissions of probate applications for estates impacted by the new regulations were avoided.
MyHMCTS has now been updated and further guidance on how to submit applications have been provided.
The following amendments have been incorporated into The Inheritance Tax (Delivery of Accounts) (Excepted Estates) (Amendment) Regulations 2021 and apply to deaths in England, Wales and Northern Ireland from 1st January 2022:
- Raising the threshold gross value of an excepted estate from £1 million to £3 million.
- Raising the value threshold of an excepted estate’s chargeable trust property from £150,000 to £250,000 (although the total amount of trust property including exempt amounts is limited to £1 million).
- Increasing the value limit in relation to specified lifetime transfers from £150,000 to £250,000.
- Amending the definition of “IHT threshold” to include cases where some of the available threshold was used when the first of a married couple or civil partnership died and a claim is made for the unused percentage to be made available against the current estate (the transferable nil-rate band).
- Simplifying the “alternative information” that is to be produced for both small estates and exempt estates.
- Removing excepted status from estates of foreign persons where the deceased either owned indirect interests in UK residential property or made lifetime gifts of UK assets above £3,000 in the seven years before death, unless the estate is not liable for IHT.
The changes are expected to significantly reduce the reporting and administrative requirements for 90% of non-taxpaying estates requiring probate or confirmation, and the expected reduction in cases where IHT400 forms must now be completed should also save, HMRC and clients alike, both time and money.
