Form IHT205 – Fill, Sign and Download | Excepted Estate Return
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ZenDocs is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice
Form IHT205, Return of Estate Information, is the short HMRC return used to report an "excepted estate", one that's unlikely to owe Inheritance Tax and doesn't need the full IHT400 account. It applies only to deaths between 6 April 2011 and 31 December 2021. The form itself hasn't been withdrawn, and the print-and-post version remains available for any death that falls inside this window and hasn't yet been reported.
For deaths on or after 1 January 2022, the process changed: executors no longer complete a separate IHT205 form at all. Instead, they answer questions about the estate's value and composition directly as part of the online or paper probate application, and the system determines whether the estate qualifies as excepted. If it does, no separate Inheritance Tax return goes to HMRC. If it doesn't, a full IHT400 is still required.
Broadly, an estate qualifies if its gross value falls within the available Inheritance Tax threshold, or if one of a small number of other conditions applies, such as the whole estate passing to a spouse or a charity. Full details are still needed even where no tax is due if the deceased gave away more than £250,000 in the seven years before death, left an estate worth more than £3 million, or held foreign assets worth more than £100,000.
No. From 17 March 2023, HMRC withdrew the online service for reporting an excepted estate for deaths between 6 April 2011 and 31 December 2021. The print-and-post PDF form is unaffected by that closure, so if a death inside this window was never reported, you complete and post the paper IHT205 rather than trying to use the online route.
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