IHTM05022 - Is an account required?: Small Estates Act Confirmation (Scotland)

Confirmation ( IHTM05104) under the Confirmation to Small Estates (Scotland) Acts may be applied for where the ‘gross executory estate’ does not exceed £30,000 (the limit effective from 1 June 2005). Previous limits were £25,000 for deaths between 1 April 1989 and 31 March 1999, £13,000 for deaths between 27 December 1984 and 31 March 1989 and £17,000 from 1 April 1989 to 31 March 1999. Confirmation will then be obtained under simplified procedures. In particular the Sheriff Clerk will prepare an inventory ( IHTM05025) for personal representatives ( IHTM05012) (prs) for a fixed fee.

The ‘estate’ referred to above is not the same as the ‘Inheritance Tax (IHT) estate’ ( IHTM04029) as defined in IHTA84/S5 (1). Whereas estate for IHT purposes may include assets not owned by the deceased, such as settled property ( IHTM16000), for the purposes of Small Estates Acts confirmation it means only assets owned by the deceased person which the prs need to obtain title to in order to administer them. Accordingly a pr is not excluded from the benefits of the Small Estates Acts procedure merely because the estate for IHT exceeds the limits laid down under the Small Estates Acts and Sheriff Clerks have been so advised. Where the estate, including any specified transfers and joint property passing by survivorship etc., also conforms to the excepted estates rules ( IHTM06012) the C1 inventory need not be sent to us but should be sent directly to the Sheriff Clerk. If, however, although the estate for which confirmation is sought is below the limit of (currently)£30,000, there are other elements (for example settled property, gifts with reservation ( IHTM14301), foreign property or lifetime transfers ( IHTM14001)) which take the estate outside the excepted estate rules, anIHT400 is required. In that case the inventory C1 should be sent directly to the appropriate Sheriff Clerk or Commissary Office and theIHT400 ( IHTM10021) to IHT.

Brief details on the procedure ( IHTM05027) for obtaining confirmation under the Small Estates Acts are contained elsewhere in this manual.