Inheritance tax court fees to hit bereaved, warns Shropshire solicitor
A shake-up of court fees surrounding inheritance laws could leave bereaved families facing costs of up to £20,000, a Shropshire lawyer has warned.
Gary Priest, of MFG Solicitors, which has branches in Telford and Ludlow, has called for the Government to rethink plans to change to the probate court fees, which will see the cost of the process linked to the size of the estate.
At the moment, all estates are subject to a fixed fee of £150, or £215 if the beneficiary does not have a solicitor.
However, under the proposed changes, people inheriting smaller estates of £50,000 or less will no longer have to pay any fees at all, while those receiving larger sums will be subjected to a sliding scale.
Mr Priest said the Ministry of Justice was creating "a new form of inheritance tax by another name".
There are concerns that people who are "cash poor" but inherit an expensive property might be denied their estate if they cannot afford the fees.
Under the proposals, estates worth between £50,000 and £300,000 would be subject to a £300 fee, rising to £1,000 for estates of up to £500,000, £4,000 for estates up to £1 million, and £20,000 for estates in excess of £2 million.
Junior justice minister Shailesh Vara said the proposals would reduce the cost to the taxpayer of running the court system.
"Court fees are never popular but they are necessary if we are, as a nation, to live within our means," he said.
"The maximum fee of £20,000 would only be paid by the very wealthiest estates, worth more than £2 million.
However, Mr Priest said the amount of work for the Probate Registry was the same regardless of the size of the estate. He said many families would be hit by cashflow problems because the fees have to be paid up front.
"The level of work is the same whether the estate is worth £20,000 or £2 million," he said.
"It is outrageous to charge more for larger estates. It is nothing more than a new inheritance tax by another name.
"While removing lower value estates from the required fee sounds fair, the level of increase for the larger estates cannot be justified."
Mr Priest said that he suspected that the changes would simply lead people to transferring more valuable properties into joint names with their children to avoid the probate process altogether.
