No funds

Liability of personal representative

The taxpayer was the personal representative of H. He filed an inheritance tax return for her estate. HMRC determined tax due of about £341 000. The taxpayer requested a statutory review but this confirmed the determination.

The taxpayer appealed. His grounds were that he did not have the funds to pay the tax because all the estate’s funds had been released to the deceased’s brother who was also a beneficiary. This had been on the understanding that the brother would pay the inheritance tax. However he moved abroad and the taxpayer was unable to contact him.

HMRC applied to have the appeal struck out because it had no reasonable prospect of success.

The First-tier Tribunal noted that the taxpayer had not challenged the amount of the determination. The judge said IHTA 1984 s 200 was clear: the personal representatives were responsible for the...