Do you need to complete IHT205 or IHT400 before probate?

One date decides which form, if any, you need

If the person died on or after 1 January 2022, you will never complete an IHT205, because the form was abolished for those deaths. An excepted estate (broadly, one with no inheritance tax to pay that meets HMRC's conditions) now files no inheritance tax return at all: you simply report the estate's values on the probate application itself, form PA1P where there is a will or PA1A where there is not. The full IHT400 account is only needed where inheritance tax is due or the estate fails the excepted estate conditions.

If the death was between 6 April 2011 and 31 December 2021, the old system still applies and IHT205 remains the correct form for an excepted estate. Most people searching this question today are dealing with a recent death, so the rest of this page covers the current rules. It is general information to help you get oriented, not legal or financial advice for your specific estate.

Route 1: excepted estate, no HMRC forms at all

Under gov.uk's excepted estates guidance, an estate for a death on or after 1 January 2022 usually qualifies as excepted if any of these applies:

• Its value is below the £325,000 inheritance tax threshold (the nil-rate band, frozen until 5 April 2031).
• It is worth £650,000 or less and the unused threshold of a late spouse or civil partner is being transferred to cover it.
• Everything above the threshold passes to a surviving UK spouse or civil partner, or to a qualifying charity, and the estate is worth under £3 million.

Side conditions also matter: broadly, gifts in the seven years before death must not exceed £250,000, foreign assets must not exceed £100,000, and there must be no gift with reservation of benefit and only limited trust interests. If the estate is excepted, you still have to establish the gross value, the net value and the net qualifying value, because the probate application asks for them, but nothing goes to HMRC. Our guide to valuing an estate for probate covers how to reach those figures.

Route 2: IHT400 to HMRC first, then probate

If inheritance tax is payable, or any excepted estate condition fails, you must complete IHT400 with its supporting schedules and send it to HMRC before applying for probate. Gov.uk's probate guidance is explicit that in England and Wales you then wait for HMRC to send you a unique code, which you need for the probate application. Two points catch people out:

• No tax due does not always mean no IHT400. Claiming the residence nil-rate band, business relief or agricultural relief, or transferring a partly used allowance, all go through the full account even where the final bill is nil.
• The IHT400 step adds weeks to the timeline. HMRC processing sits in front of the probate application rather than alongside it. Our probate timeline estimator lets you see how the two routes compare for your estate.

Where tax is due, some or all of it must normally be paid before the grant issues; the direct payment scheme lets banks pay HMRC straight from the deceased's accounts.

Note that the person making this call is you, the executor or administrator. HMRC does not confirm the route in advance. You value the estate, test it against the conditions, and choose. Keep a record of the valuations and the checks you ran: if HMRC later queries the estate, being able to show a reasoned decision matters, and if the figures were near a threshold it may still ask for a full account.

A quick illustration

Two brothers, Marcus and Dev, are administering their father's estate: a £280,000 house, £30,000 of savings and no significant gifts. At £310,000 the estate sits under the nil-rate band, so it is excepted. They value the assets, enter the figures on PA1P and apply for probate directly. Their neighbour's estate, worth £700,000 with a residence nil-rate band claim, pays no tax either, but her executors must complete IHT400, wait for HMRC's code, and only then apply. Same outcome on tax, very different paperwork.

Where to go from here

This page answers the narrow form question. For the full decision path, including every excepted estate condition, the values you must calculate and a step-by-step walkthrough of both routes, see our complete guide to IHT400 vs IHT205 and excepted estates, and our probate pillar guide for the wider process. If the estate sits close to a threshold, holds trust interests or foreign assets, or involves relief claims, a probate specialist can confirm the right route before you file anything; getting that call right at the start avoids redone applications and months of avoidable delay.