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Inherited money in India - what now?

10 replies

humsnet · 09/01/2020 13:54

Posting for traffic as this is probably the ultimate in niche questions but I know from lurking that there are a few Indian and British Indians on here.

My Indian grandmother died almost a decade ago and I’ve just discovered that my siblings and I are beneficiaries of her estate. Her home has finally been sold and proceeds are now to be divided. She left us the equivalent of £120k so not life changing but nonetheless an unexpected windfall which would make a huge difference to our daily circumstances.

My cousins in India have already received their portion but ours is languishing in a bank account and we’ve no idea how to go about repatriating the money. Relationships within our Indian extended family are very strained so can’t really approach them for advice. (There’s a misconception that we’re rich and don’t need the money, and that as we lived overseas we were insufficiently involved in her care - a discussion for another day!)

If anyone has been through a similar situation I’d love a DM or reply on here. TIA.

OP posts:
Cheesestrings123 · 09/01/2020 14:00

I think you will need to go over there OP and appoint a solicitor to deal with the estate process, and an accountant to deal with paying the tax before you transfer the funds into the UK (they are huge on this, the Indian tax office filed a 3 yr case against my UK relative for not paying the correct tax on a land sale and she received very heavy fines). You will almost certainly need to go over there otherwise it will not get sorted. Good luck

smogsville · 09/01/2020 14:01

Similar here DH due to inherit in NZ. Apparently he will have to pay tax on it at his normal UK taxpayer rate once it gets transferred across bank to bank. You can apparently bring back £5k in cash tax free per trip but that wouldn't really be practical! Or I suppose you could chance it and put loads of cash into a suitcase and hope not to get caught. My nervous disposition would prevent me from trying that.

BuzzShitbagBobbly · 09/01/2020 14:02

Useful article here, if only for the comment regarding the specific IHT agreement between UK and India. But otherwise agree with pp you need a specialist lawyer. Look for firms in areas of large Indian immigrants as this will be a more common issue for them and may be able to minimise the amount of time you have to spend over there.

www.nrilegalservices.com/before-you-plan-to-take-away-inheritance-money-from-india/

Olliephaunt4eyes · 09/01/2020 14:05

My experience of the Indian legal system is that you definitely need someone on site to hassle everyone or nothing will happen ever. Solicitor would be best probably. You might be able to contact one of them via the internet? I don't know. In my case, I had a sibling in the country who was able to appoint someone and then I went out once to sign things. Had to send about a million bits of paper before then though.

BonnyConnie · 09/01/2020 14:06

@smogsville make sure you apply for unilateral relief.

smogsville · 09/01/2020 14:16

@BonnyConnie thanks, what is that?

BonnyConnie · 09/01/2020 15:05

@smogsville so sometimes the U.K. will have an agreement with another country to prevent double taxation. When it does not it avoids double taxing you by giving you relief

www.gov.uk/guidance/inheritance-tax-double-taxation-relief

BonnyConnie · 09/01/2020 15:06

@smogsville if it’s a large sum of money I would suggest seeking advice from a tax consultant.

zebra22 · 09/01/2020 15:10

@smogsville if it is inheritance it’s taxable on the estate not your husband

He needs to be careful not to put it in a mixed bank account though

smogsville · 09/01/2020 16:14

Thanks everyone, will make sure it's all looked into.

OP apologies for the derail. Hopefully some of this might be helpful for you too.

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