The aftermath of a loved one’s death is like nothing else. Some mornings you wake and for a blissful moment forget that they have gone before reality lands a gut punch. On others, you have not slept at all and try your best that day to do normal, human, things, when you do not feel human at all.
How cruel that in that time, when the simplest of tasks can feel impossible, you must also tackle the backwards and bureaucratic nightmare that is the inheritance tax system. And you must do so within six months if you are to avoid incurring interest on any tax owed — I know firsthand how those first six months can pass like six days in the freshest throes of grief.
The tax system is riddled with rules that make life unnecessarily difficult for those who interact with it, but requiring inheritance tax to be paid before an estate can be granted probate — the legal right to deal with someone’s estate after they die — is one of the worst.
If the deceased has enough cash in their estate to cover an inheritance tax bill then settling the debt with HM Revenue & Customs before proceeding to probate can be straightforward. But those who were asset-rich and cash poor can leave their executors (often family members and friends) stuck in a painful loop between the taxman and the probate office.
