IHT between spouses

[cart]

As there is no IHT liability between spouses.

1) If the deceased spouse's entire estate has been left to the surviving spouse.
2) If the family home is held by the couple as joint tenants and thereby passes automatically to the surviving spouse.
3) If all other assets are held jointly and are therefore accessible to the surviving spouse.

Does it follow that probate is unnecessary even though the deceased’s estate exceeds the IIHT threshold

If this is the case, does the surviving spouse nonetheless have to report this to anyone?

[btvs2000]

Hi, i would also like to know the answer to this question plus the following:

is it correct, that e.g. if my fathers estate passes to my mum, that is £325,000 IHT allowance is not lost simply transferred to my mums, so that if she was to pass away, her allowance would be £650,000. This seems a very easy option and therefore, not sure why so many people use trusts and try for exampel to gift £325,000 to children on first death.? any comments welcome.

[Lee Young]

A grant of prbate has nothing to do wththe tax. Probate is only needed if there are assets in the deceased' s sole name and which the banks etc will only transfer with that formal authortiy being in place.

For example if two brothers held a bank account in joint names it would pass automatically to the surviving brother, no probate needed. However tax would still be payable on the balance that was transferred if it exceeded the nil rate band threshold.

If all assets are held jointly by spouses there will be no need to obtain a grant of probate to transfer any of them. No reporting necessary. You will need to keep the will of the first to die as evidence in case the transferable nil rate band is needed on the second death.

[btvs2000]

Lee, Thank you for the reply and confirmation, very helpful.

[crazy_chatterbox1]

I suggest that you should ring up probate legal advice companies for free advice and ask them about any concerns over the issue for example I have heard that ITC legal services have a free phone telephone number.
Check out their link:
http://www.itclegal.com