If a married couple own their home as joint tenants, and the wife dies leaving her entire estate to their surviving spouse, what is the significance of the probate valuation of the house? Clearly there is no immediate IHT burden on the husband, even if the wife's assets are over the nil-rate band.
When the husband eventually dies, which hopefully will not be for 20 or 30 years yet, and leaves his estate to the couple's children, then the house (or whatever property he is living in at the time) will be valued then, and will count for IHT due before the children get their bequests (his total estate estate will be more than twice the nil-rate band).
So far so good? What I'm struggling to understand now though, is what does it matter how much the marital home is currently worth... if it's 50K or £500K or £5m, why is it of any interest to HMRC? As the widowed husband in the above scenario, I'm just trying to get my head around how much I need to bother with getting an accurate valuation (it's an unusual property which to be honest will be difficult to value). Even if, say, the husband died even months later, and the actual selling price of the marital home at that point turned out to be wildly and embarrassingly different to the previous probate valuation after the wife died - so what?
Thanks for any clarification here!
- Home
-
Tax News
- Budgets and Autumn Statements
- Income Tax
- Business Tax
- PAYE and Payroll Taxes, National Insurance, NICs
- Company Taxation
- Savings & Investments, Pensions & Retirement
- Capital Gains Tax, CGT
- Property Taxation
- Inheritance Tax, IHT, Trusts & Estates, Capital Taxes
- Tax Investigations & Enquiries
- VAT & Excise Duties
- Stamp Duty, Stamp Duty Land Tax, SDLT
- International Tax
- HMRC Administration, Practice and Methods
- Professionals in Practice & Industry
- General
- TaxationWeb
-
Tax Articles
- Budgets and Autumn Statements
- Income Tax
- Business Tax
- PAYE and Payroll Taxes, National Insurance, NICs
- Company Taxation
- Savings and Investments, Pensions and Retirement
- Capital Gains Tax, CGT
- Property Taxation
- Inheritance Tax, IHT, Trusts & Estates, Capital Taxes
- Tax Investigations & Enquiries
- VAT & Excise Duties
- Stamp Duty, Stamp Duty Land Tax, SDLT
- International Tax
- HMRC Administration, Practice & Methods
- Professionals in Practice & Industry
- General
- Tax Tips
-
Tax Forum
- Income Tax
- Business Tax
- PAYE and Payroll Taxes, National Insurance, NICs
- Company Taxation
- Savings & Investments, Pensions & Retirement
- Capital Gains Tax, CGT
- Property Taxation
- Inheritance Tax, IHT, Trusts & Estates, Capital Taxes
- Tax Investigations and Enquiries
- VAT & Excise Duties
- Stamp Duty, Stamp Duty Land Tax, SDLT
- International Tax
- HMRC Administration, Practices & Methods
- Professionals in Practice & Industry
- General
- Tax Jobs
- Get in Touch