‘My mum died three years ago. I'm still waiting for a £20k inheritance tax refund'
Dear Telegraph Money,
I have just read a recent article you wrote. It came up in a desperate Google search for solutions to my issue with inheritance tax and HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC).
My mother died in September 2022, leaving me as her executor and sole beneficiary. Inheritance tax was due on her estate, and was paid.
Probate was granted, and by November 2023, my solicitors were ready to ask HMRC for a refund. But we didn't hear anything back until January 2025, by which point the solicitors' firm was no longer acting for me.
Finally, on January 6, I was sent a letter through my old solicitors, asking for an updated repayment authorisation, so that my refund could be paid. This was returned within the month.
But now it's June, and I've still not received my money. Monthly calls to HMRC have proved fruitless, with the delay blamed on staff shortages and a huge backlog of cases.
I understand to a point, but given when probate ended, this delay seems extraordinary.
They say they are going to pay the money with applicable interest, but it's not yet in my account. Can you help push things along?
– Mr P
Dear Mr P,
What an incredibly long delay. It's been nearly three years since your mother's death, and the administration has still not been completed.
When someone dies, there can be an awful lot of admin to do, even when the estate is relatively simple, as in your case. When things go wrong, this can cause delays and confusion – and financial loss.
But it wasn't just HMRC which had got something wrong in this case. The taxman didn't have records of any refund requested in November 2023 – despite what your solicitors had told you.
This meant that it wasn't until January this year, when your case was processed, that HMRC realised that you were owed a refund.
But it still took until June, after I had chased for the refund, for the money to actually land in your account.
HMRC has admitted to me previously that it is prioritising 'IHT 400' forms, which confirm whether inheritance tax is due at all, over refunds, in order to clear a probate backlog and reduce pressure on the courts.
This helps to explain the delay, but it is still not acceptable that you waited an extra six months to be paid.
Inheritance tax can be overpaid for a variety of reasons, but one of the most common is that a property is valued at more than it is eventually sold for. More than 18,000 families have claimed refunds for this reason in the last three years, according to HMRC data shared with NFU Mutual.
Two days after I got in touch with HMRC, £19,348 landed in your bank account. This is your refund of £18,170.45, plus interest of £1,178.03.
At this point, you weren't certain how much refund you were due, but you were delighted that you'd received what HMRC thought you were owed.
A HMRC spokesman said: 'We apologise to Mr P and have issued him the refund he's owed.
'The vast majority of inheritance tax accounts are cleared within 15 working days and we're investing £52m to digitalise our inheritance tax service to make the process even simpler and quicker.'
It sounds like there was a significant error on the part of your solicitors. I advised you that you may well be able to make a complaint to them and be owed some compensation.
You are very busy at work currently, but when things calm down, you plan to dig out all the paper documents again, and ask them what went wrong.
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