Where do I start?

[WhisperingGrass]

My mother died at the end of last year. I lived with her and our home is worth £590,000 so her share would be £295,000 plus other assets, making a total of £545,000. Her husband, my father died in 2016 and he left all his estate to me using all of his NRB but I believe I will be able to transfer his residential nil rate band over to her estate so hopefully there won't be Inheritance Tax to pay.

She has left everything to me in her will and I want to start doing the probate myself. The problem is, I'm struggling mentally at the moment and not thinking straight. I can't remember what to do and what forms I will need to fill out. I did have a quick look on the .Gov site and I don't know if I fill out a form IHT400 or the shorter version. Can anybody help me please?

In the first instance you will have to fill out an IHT402 to transfer the unused nil rate band. I’m fairly sure the amount transferable is whatwver the nil rate band was at the date of the first death. I think the residential property nil rate band wasn’t introduced until 2017. You will have to check both of those points.

Once you know the position re the transferable nil rate band, check the IHT400 Guidance notes section on “low value estates” to see if you can fill out the shorter form. Generally speaking you only fill out the IHT 400 where there is tax to pay (or a relief other than spouse exemption is being claimed) but you do have to check the rules.

To correct the previous poster, the amount of the residence nil rate band transferable is based on the nil rate band at the time of the second death. This means that, even though OP's father died before 6 April 2017, it is still possible to transfer his residence nil rate band even though there was no such thing when he died.

Since OP's mother's share of the house is £295k, that will be covered by her RNRB plus the RNRB transferred from OP's father. That leaves £250k which is comfortably within the IHT nil rate band so, unless OP's mother made significant lifetime gifts in the last 7 years, there will be no IHT to pay.

There's services out there that will process your claim for around £450 plus filing cost (you have to pay the filing cost if you diy) unless you're really struggling financially, for the sake of your mental health why not pay someone to do it for you. I'm all for saving money normally but in this case you are grieving your mum and struggling

Age U.K. have brilliant resources online for helping navigate through a bereavement and the associated legal processes.

www.ageuk.org.uk/information-advice/money-legal/legal-issues/what-to-do-when-someone-dies/dealing-with-the-estate/

prh47bridge the last 2 years she gave me £3000 a yr but I believe I don't need to mention that. No other gifts over the last 7 yrs to anyone.
I'm going to look at the IHT402 now. I think I need the distraction of keeping myself busy. If I get stuckk at anytime can I icome back here and ask for your help?Thanks evryone.

Gifts of up to £3000 a year are exempt. Also, if she made these as regular payments to you to help with your living costs, they are exempt on that basis as well. In any event, they aren't remotely enough to bring the estate up to the IHT threshold.

Am just filling in questions 9-12 and I'm already stuck! question 9 I've put £325,000; question 10 I've put £1,000 (a gift my father made to me after annual exemptions deducted); question 11 has a strange word in the value box saying 'nan'. What does that mean? And I assume question 12 is 0?

NAN stands for Not A Number. It simply means you haven't put anything in there yet. However, Fleur405 has directed you to the wrong form - sorry for not spotting this earlier. You aren't transferring nil rate band, you are transferring residence nil rate band. You need IHT436.

Correction, box 11 is calculated automatically - box 9 minus box 10. It is showing NAN because the calculation isn't working. However, as this is the wrong form you don't need to worry about that.

Im sorry for your loss

I did probate and had a trusted friend come and sit with me, as like you I was still very much grieving.

We telephoned the Probate office helpline and I have to say all the forms we thought we had to fill in were incorrect - the help line was outstanding and very kind. They spoke to my friend and we did the process online filled out the forms, paid online and then I got the original will from the solicitors to send to the probate office

www.gov.uk/applying-for-probate

If you’ve not applied yet and have a question about applying for probate, contact the Courts and Tribunals Service Centre.

Courts and Tribunals Service Centre
Telephone: 0300 303 0648

Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm

Thank you so much. I thought I was going nuts! Well, that's one less form I have to do, so that's a good thing. Should I fill out IHT436 before I fill out any other form? I don't know if these forms have to be filled out in numerical order.

I did the probate forms for my late father in law, mother in law died 3 years previous so I didn’t have to fill in the long form, just the short one. I confirmed this with the Probate Helpline, they were very helpful and will tell you exactly what forms you need to do. I told them I was worried about not filling it in right, but was assured if there were any queries they would contact me to sort out, before issuing probate, so don’t let this put you off doing it yourself.

It's much easier and less stressful to employ a probate solicitor. The fee comes,out of the estate, so you will not be out of pocket.

Since she inherits everything, she will be out of pocket. If she spends money on a solicitor, there will be less for her to inherit.