Inheritance Tax

[Carla11]

My dear aunt passed away and there has been a lot of problems with my cousins.
One of my cousins was executor and I asked to see the statement of accounts which he was reluctant to send me.
Finally received but can see no payment to HMRC for inheritance tax.
Im not sure if he paid it? If he didn't who would be liable please?

How long ago dis your Aunt die? Are you certain that inheritance tax is due?

Yes the key question is was it definitely due? What was the value of the estate and who inherited?

Sorry for late reply. She had a property valued at around £390k and investments around £300k.
Propeerty split between 3 beneficiaries and the rest split between 12

Had she been married?

If she was married and husband is no longer alive, then there would be both her and her husbands' inheritance tax allowance. This means the assets probably don't reach the threshold for inheritance tax and there is none to pay.

To fill out the previous answer a bit more...

If she was married, any IHT allowance her husband did not use would be transferred to her. Anything he left her was excluded from IHT completely so, if he left everything to her, his entire IHT allowance would be available for her.

In addition to that, if the property was left to her direct descendants an additional £175k allowance is available. Also, if she jointly owned the property with her husband and he left his share to her, that would add another £175k allowance. There is therefore potentially up to £1M allowance before any tax is payable.

The executors are required to complete the IHT forms before applying for probate unless the estate was excepted (in which case there was no IHT to pay). It is therefore unlikely that there is any unpaid IHT. However, if there is IHT to pay and the executors distribute the estate without paying, they may be personally liable.

The additional £175k transferrable residential allowance does not depend on the husband having been a house owner. It is available to transfer if it was not used.

Are you one of the main beneficiaries? If not, you're not entitled to see the statement of accounts.
If the estate has been distributed then probate must have been received. So IHT if due would have been taken care of.

Apologies. This is correct. Really should remember to proof read my posts!

Thanks for all the replies. She was married and my dear uncle passed some years ago.

Their original will stated everything to be split equally between nieces and nephews (they never had children).

At some point my cousin took her to amend the will so that the house was spit between her and her two brothers.

My cousins husband was the executor and I just wondered why he was being so reluctant for me to see the accounts. There has been some bad blood between us and the only thing I can think of is that he didn't want me to see how much they got?
But, I was already aware of the will change ( happy for my aunt to do what she wanted).

There was also quite a bit of cash in the house, my mum told my aunt where it was and that wasn't put into the pot.

But I guess that's her word against my aunt so nothing that can be done.

It was just the fact he didn't want me to have the accounts I thought something may be off.

If you're correct about the amounts involved, IHT will have been due as you only get the house allowance if passing a property to direct descendants, which your aunt isn't.

So with her husband's nil rate band, the max she'd have to pass down without tax is £650k (assuming her husband left everything to her).

So are you concerned you’ve missed out on inheriting?

@FrenchandSaunders
No not at all. It's just the way everything was handled.

My cousins husband started throwing accusations at my mum when I asked to see the accounts. He was very nasty.
He also paid everyone their inheritance but only paid mine and my db 4 months after everything was settled.
I had to ask him for it and he said he had messaged me when he didn't.