Inheritance tax, valuing assets

[RunningStrong]

I need to apply for probate on DH's estate.

It will all pass to me and is well below the £1m anyway, but you still have to do the Inheritance Tax return before you can apply, even though no tax is due.

So you have to go through and list the value of all his assets. In every page it say this must be am accurate valuation "do not guess".

-He has his share of our savings, that's
easy
-He has a share of this house. Surely I don't have to arrange a proper valuation? I've looked at recent sales but we're in almost a little enclave with it's own housing market in the town and there aren't any in the last 3.5 years. I.e. the same house 0.5 miles away would have a very different value. I'm happy to put tje 3.5yo value down but it probably understates it in this mad housing market?

• Then he has his stuff in the house, almost all of which I would consider jointly owned. Furniture, clothes, electrical stuff, bikes. How do I go about getting a value for those without "guessing"

Also in the months leading up to his death we transferred some things into my name to make things easier now. E.g. the car. Presumably I need to put that down as a gift within 7 years? Or not as it was to his wife?

Is there anything of any value? stocks shares or an expensive item of jewellery?

get an estate agent out for a value on the property and get them to write it down in a letter to you for you to keep as evidence you had the property valued.

as far as I could see on the forms they were only interested in personal affects that were of real value and not normal furniture around the house, and the car wasn't in his name anyway so no need to itemise that

sorry for your loss

and by the way the telephone help for the probate off ice is worth a rind before you start as they are very very helpful on what forms to fill in

I thought id sussed the forms and when we rang they told us to do other forms and that made sense and I paid online and it all went through easily

I'm sorry for your loss x We did this for my sister (and had to pay a big chunk of IHT) and our solicitor said that HMRC is only bothered if it looks like you're taking the piss. So, get 2 written EA valuations for the house and then, unless he had a diamond Rolex, lump the personal effects together and call it £2k or £5k. If he had anything that you are going to sell/have sold, itemise it separately (eg, set of golf clubs) but don't stress about it. We had a run-of-the-mill car to sell and knocked off a grand as it needed work doing to it. As long as it looks as though you've put some thought into it they'll be fine. Oh, we also itemised money that came back to us - car tax, gas and council tax credit etc - but doesn't sound as though this will apply to you. Good luck 💐

Sorry for your loss, I hope you are OK.

If you really need values for small items, use the sold filter on eBay.

Valuation is usually based on comparable evidence, so if you can find sold prices that's a comparable.

If your joint assets are going to be well below 1 million then yes you won't have to worry about IHT at this stage, or probably ever.

However make sure you don't undervalue anything significant including the house - in certain unusual circumstances it can bite you in the arse for Capital Gains Tax at a later date.

If the house was owned jointly and not as tenants in common then it's outside the estate anyway.

but you still need a valuation. Sorry pressed post too soon