Income tax for money earnt during probate

[SeamusMcStew]

My father died September last year and left a tenanted rental flat to be split 3 ways between me and my 2 brothers. My older brother and I are the two executors of his will and all 3 of us are the beneficiaries.
Following his passing we closed all his bank accounts including the one that rent was paid into and opened up a new joint account (me and other executor named account holders) so the tenant could continue to pay the rent during probate and up to the sale of the property. This account has been taking rent each month for the last 10 months and the funds accrued have been used to clear some of my fathers debts, pay the insurance for the flat, gas certificate etc. probate was granted in March 24 (so took 6 months).
The flat is still in my father’s name.
We have given the tenant notice (section 21) however it appears she is not playing ball and will not acknowledge the notice or respond to any communication. Therefore we fear this may have to go down the eviction route. The costs to pay for this would be drawn from the joint executors flat bank account as well as any money needed to repair the flat from the evection to the sale of the flat.
Any remaining money in the account will be shared 3 ways as per the will. Potentially we could be left with minimal funds depending on the eviction/state of the flat.
HMRC have closed my dads self assessment account following us filing his final return up until date of death (sept 23).
On the phone to HMRC I asked what we should do regarding tax with the money that is in the executor joint account. I was told that as the money was not being paid into my dads account (as its closed) both my brother and I would need to declare the money and pay the income tax on it as it is going into our account. He put me on hold and asked a manager however when I got off the phone I thought surely this cannot be true?
For example if the executor was a 3rd party and my 2 brothers and I were beneficiaries the executor would not be liable for the tax? The money would not be theirs and they would use the money to administer the estate and any remainder would be split 3 ways with the beneficiaries.
I would be most grateful for any advice.

[AGoodman]

You have a little flexibility but I agree the better analysis is that the new account is an executors account. You opened it to receive estate income and have used it to pay estate liabilities. In a perfect world you would have labelled it executors account or similar but that isn't essential. The HMRC helpline is unfortunately a bit crap on actual tax questions. If you make returns on that basis, i doubt HMRC will quibble.

On that basis, you will probably have to file an administration period tax return SA800 for each tax year of the administration period but you may be able to use the simple (informal) arrangements if the costs of removing the tenant and repairs are tax deductible (the latter should be, i don't know about the former), reducing the tax for the period. The full details (or at least the Govt version of them) is here:

https://www.gov.uk/probate-estate/reporting-the-estate

If you do have to file returns, the first one will be for your father's date of death to 5 April 2024 and due to be filed (if on paper) by 31 October this year. If electronically (if you can), you have until 31 January. You would also have to register the estate with https://www.gov.uk/guidance/register-an-estate-as-a-personal-representative in order to get a UTR to enable you to file.

[SeamusMcStew]

that really helps thank you