When someone dies, it's important to sort out their tax and national insurance as soon as possible. There may be tax to pay or a rebate due. The PR sorts out the deceased person's tax affairs, as well as the rest of the estate.
Tell Us Once is a service that lets you report a death to most government organisations in one go.
If you use this service, HMRC will be notified and they will tell you whether any tax is due or if a rebate is payable, or if a tax return needs to be completed.
The Tell Us Once service is not available in all areas of the UK. In these cases, you will have to contact HMRC direct.
If applicable, you need to send the tax return back by the later of:
Either way, HMRC will calculate the deceased's tax for you if you wish. However, bear in mind that if tax is owed, you still need to make any payment by the above deadlines. HMRC can only guarantee to let you know how much is due and still give you sufficient time to pay if they receive the return by the later of:
If you send the return in later and haven't calculated the tax, you can estimate any tax due and enclose a payment if relevant. But if this is below the actual amount due, interest would be payable on the difference if it's received after the final deadlines. If no payment is made by the final deadline and it turns out that tax is due, you may incur a late payment charge as well as interest.
Form R40 is a special form for claiming a repayment of tax deducted from savings and investments. You can fill this in right away - or later on when you know that a refund is definitely due. The form is available from the tax office.
It's important to tell banks and building societies as soon as possible that the account holder has died because: