Probate waiting times improve but 'fundamental issues' remain—ePrivateClient

The best way to avoid estates paying interest of 8.5 percent on outstanding tax will be to file inheritance tax returns as soon as possible thereafter and to complete the applications for probate as soon as the IHT is paid.

Executors may need to consider sale of assets pre-grant to fund tax or may have to fund IHT from personal funds by way of a loan to the estate. Where that is not possible, the costs to the estate will be significant - the cost of interest on projected rates of interest from April 2025 of just £100,000 of IHT amounts to £8,500 per annum. An IHT tax liability of £1 million could amount to £85,000 per annum, or nearly £1,650 of interest per week on unpaid tax.

This increase in interest rates is further bad news for executors and bereaved families; whilst the situation has improved at the Probate Court, the latest statistics report the issue of grants for probate four weeks from application on average. In addition to this there is a four-week waiting period for the issue of Inheritance Tax codes. These timescales represent approximately one third of the interest free period applied to the estates.