Inheritance tax

[dotjhawkes]

Is there a ceiling for inheritance that won't get included for tax? Will the solocitor automatically tell the Inland Revenue about the money at some point? If she doesn't , will I have to tell them?

[dzug]

The answers are yes maybe and depends who you are.

The threshold from this April is �280K. This is the whole estate, not individual bequests.

If the solicitor is executor he will tell the IR; if not he may or may not. If he doesn't he should tell the executor to do so.

If you are not the executor then it's not your problem anyway.

If you are a beneficiary it's not your problem (other than you may get less than you hoped)

[dzug]

One other point - if you receive a bequest you don't have to tell the IR about it, but if you get interest on it as well (because it's paid late for example) you DO have to tell them about the interest.

[dotjhawkes]

Thanks for that, very succinct reply which I appreciated. There will not be inheritance tax as the total amount is around 160K, I won't need to inform anyone as I am not the executor, but would you know if I would be liable to pay any personal tax on it as unearned income? :)

[dzug]

Think maybe I anticipated your question - see my second post.

The bequest is not income, earned or otherwise. There is no tax on it. However, once it's invested, you do have to pay tax on the income from it.

Hope that's clear.