Author Topic: Wills  (Read 733 times)

Offline ReadyDale

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Wills
« on: Tuesday 31 May 16 18:25 BST (UK) »
Hi all,

Two more Wills questions from me for our experts on RC.
1) If a will has gone through probate and a grant of probate exists, does that mean that any potential disputes about validity, etc, have been resolved?
2) On a grant of probate, there are two (estimated) figures on there - "the gross value of said estate" and "the net value of said estate". What has/hasn't been deducted from the gross to give the net? Is this solicitor fees, etc? Would this also be after any Inheritance Tax has been deducted? Or would the final value be lower?

Thanks in advance

ReadyDale

Offline lizdb

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Re: Wills
« Reply #1 on: Tuesday 31 May 16 19:43 BST (UK) »
I would think that gross is before inheritance tax,  and net after.

Usually probate is granted to the executors once they have sworn an oath (takes about 30 seconds!). The probate office will already have asked for the Will, and so will have satisfied themselves it meets the general requirements.
But it wont be up to them to 'prove' there is no more recent Will or anything like that.

I am sure there are disputes that come up after that about various things.
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Offline Cathy1312

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Re: Wills
« Reply #2 on: Tuesday 31 May 16 21:07 BST (UK) »
As regards 2), having just done probate on my father's estate, I have all the probate paperwork to hand.

The numbers on the grant of probate are the gross value of the estate for which a grant of probate is required - this doesn't include any joint assets which are automatically inherited by the surviving party.

The net value of the estate is after any debts to the estate have been deducted (i.e. funeral costs, any money owed).

The value for inheritance tax purposes can be a different number, as any joint assets have to be added back in for this - this number is not on the grant of probate as it is HMRC not HM Courts service who have to collect any inheritance tax.

Offline ReadyDale

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Re: Wills
« Reply #3 on: Thursday 02 June 16 17:46 BST (UK) »
Sorry not to have acknowledged sooner, but could only log on with my phone and I struggle to make posts (as opposed to just reading them) on that.
Thanks to you both for your replies. That has clarified.
One more thing...
On the Net Value (as previously mentioned), is IHT taken on that AFTER any donations to charities are taken out (i.e. if the Net Value is say £500k, of which £75k is given to charity, the IHT is based on the remaining £425k, so once the £325k allowance is taken out of the equation, £100k is taxed at 40% [or 36% in this example, as the charity donation is over 10% of the Net Value]).
Have I understood this correctly, or totally got the wrong end of the stick.


Offline Cathy1312

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Re: Wills
« Reply #4 on: Thursday 02 June 16 19:40 BST (UK) »
That sounds right to me, although I have no experience of inheritance tax, since the estate I dealt with was exempt due to it all passing to the surviving spouse.

The form I used (which is only used if no inheritance tax to pay) had boxes:

Gross value for inheritance tax purposes = £x
Value exempt for assets passing to spouse or charity =£y
Net qualifying value = £x - £y

which seems to agree with what you have outlined.