Inheritance question

[PlaymobilPirate]

My uncle passed away recently and myself and 3 siblings were the sole beneficiaries of his and my late aunt's will.

We've decided to instead split it 5 equal ways, to include my mum.

The cheques are in mine and my siblings names - we just planned to each transfer a set amount to our mum. One of my dbil thinks that we're not allowed to just gift a large ish sum (24k from each of us) to mum though and that we'd have to pay tax or something on it?
Does anyone know anything about it please?

You need professional legal advice - 1) the law in Scotland is significantly different in Scotland than it is in England & Wales 2) if you don't already have it you need probate 3) the total amount of the deceased's estate is more than the Inheritance Tax allowance there may be tax to pay before it is shared 4) its possible to share the money with your Mum but it's advisable to change the will so there are no problems later if there is a dispute.

Thank you - we're in the uk and we've already been through probate and the cheques for myself and my siblings came go through the post yesterday.

We literally just want to pay the cheques into our respective bank accounts then give mum some from each of us.

In that case I think you could make life time gifts if it is documented but there may be inheritance tax to pay if you die in the next seven years & your estate is over the Inheritance Tax allowance.

Didn't your solicitor advise a deed of variation before probate granted? That would have avoided any form of tax payable on the amount your mum is now getting...

No - we've only just decided to give mum the money... I honestly thought it'd be fine to just transfer it to her account! 😶

You can just transfer her it her account. However if one of you die within 7 years of the gift the amount (eg £24K) would be put back into your estate for the purpose of calculating inheritance tax on your estate. As each year goes then less tax is payable. ie. more tax may become due if you die after 1 year and less if after 6. It is known as a potentially exempt transfer. (PET)

If you all live for more than 7 years after the gift to your Mum which I hope you all will then no tax is payable.

The usual way is to do a deed of variation to avoid the inheritance tax issue if one of you died in the next 7 years, but it's entirely your choice if you want to risk it. An alternative could be to give your Mum £3k each a year for the next 8 years, which would also get around the problem.

We had the exact same situation. We were advised to have a deed of variation drawn up.