How to value an estate for Inheritance Tax and report its value (2024)

Before you report the value of the estate (the deceased’s money, property and possessions), check if you need to send full details of the estate so that you complete the correct forms.

The information you need to provide and how you do this depends on a number of factors, including whether Inheritance Tax is due or not.

You may have to pay a financial penalty if you give inaccurate information.

If Inheritance Tax is due

You’ll need to give full details of the estate if Inheritance Tax is due.

Find out what you need to do if Inheritance Tax is due.

When to send full details of the estate’s value even if no tax is due

You’ll need to send full details of the estate, even if no tax is due, if the person who died:

• gave away over £250,000 in the 7 years before they died
• gave gifts then continued to benefit from them in the 7 years before they died
• left an estate worth more than £3 million
• was ‘deemed domiciled’ in the UK
• had foreign assets worth more than £100,000
• was living permanently outside the UK when they died but had previously lived in the UK
• had a life insurance policy that paid out to someone other than their spouse or civil partner and also had an annuity
• had increased the value of a lump sum from a personal pension to be paid after their death, while they were terminally ill or in poor health
• had agreed that property they’d given away during their lifetime would be part of their estate rather than pay a pre-owned asset charge

If the estate includes trusts

You’ll need to complete a full account if the deceased:

• gave gifts that were paid into trusts
• held assets worth over £250,000 in trust
• held more than one trust

You’ll also need to complete a full account if assets held in trust passed to a surviving spouse, civil partner or charity and the trust was worth:

• £1 million or more
• £250,000 or more after the amount passing to the surviving spouse, civil partner or charity has been deducted

When full details are not needed - ‘excepted estates’

You do not have to give full details of an estate’s value if all of the following are true:

• the estate counts as an ‘excepted estate’
• there’s no Inheritance Tax to pay
• you’ve checked that none of the reasons under ‘when you need to send full details of the estate’s value even if no tax is due’ apply

Most estates are excepted estates.

What counts as an excepted estate

An estate is usually an excepted estate if any of the following apply:

• its value is below the current Inheritance Tax threshold
• the estate is worth £650,000 or less and any unused threshold is being transferred from a spouse or civil partner who died first
• the deceased left everything to a spouse or civil partner living in the UK or to a qualifying charity and the estate is worth less than £3 million (search the charity register for registered UK charities)
• the deceased was living permanently outside the UK (a ‘foreign domiciliary’) when they died and the value of their UK assets is under £150,000

What you need to do next

The process you need to follow depends on whether you’re dealing with:

• an estate where a full account is needed
• an excepted estate

Dealing with an excepted estate

You can report the value of an excepted estate if you apply for probate. Check if you need probate and apply for it if you do.

You do not need to report the value of an excepted estate if you do not need probate.

Applying for probate in Scotland or Northern Ireland

There’s a different way to apply for probate if the deceased lived in Scotland or lived in Northern Ireland.

If you need help with probate or the value of the estate

Contact HM Courts and Tribunals Service if you’re not sure if you’ll need probate or if the value of the estate changes.

If you need help with Inheritance Tax

Contact HM Revenue and Customs for questions about Inheritance Tax.