Manage your estate's details
Use the online service to update details of an estate, authorise an agent, or close an estate.
Updating estate details
You should use the online service if the information about the estate you gave at registration changes.
Information needs to be kept up to date to make sure any correspondence is sent to the right person at the correct address.
You can:
- replace the personal representative
- update the name and address of the current personal representative
- provide details which were not known at registration
- close the estate
You cannot update the details of the person who has died or the years of tax liability.
Closing an estate
You will need to tell us when a registered estate has been settled (or ‘distributed’) at the end of the administration period (that is the date the administration period ended and ‘closed’).
Personal representatives and agents need to tell HMRC about closing an estate by either:
- using the online service
- filling in paper form SA900 and posting it to HMRC
Authorising an agent
Personal representatives
If you want an agent to view or make changes to an estate’s registration details, you’ll need to authorise the agent to manage the estate’s details for you.
You’ll need an Organisation Government Gateway user ID for each estate whose details you want an agent to access.
Once you have signed in, you’ll need to confirm that the estate has been registered online and enter the estate’s Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR).
You’ll also need to answer some questions about the people associated with the estate to ‘claim’ it and link it to your Government Gateway user ID. The answers you give must match the information entered at registration or when the estate’s details were last updated.
Tell your agent when you have successfully claimed the estate. Your agent will then sign in to their online account and create a request authorisation link that they will email to you.
Select the link and sign in with the same Organisation Government Gateway user ID and password you used to claim the estate.
You will then be able to authorise your agent.
Agents
You must have authorisation from your client before you can view or change the details of the estate.
You will need to:
- ask your client to set up an ‘Organisation’ Government Gateway user ID and password for each estate you want access, if they do not already have one
- tell your client that they must ‘claim’ the estate by answering some questions about it – you should give your client the latest details of the estate so that their answers match them
- sign in to your agent services account after your client has claimed the estate, then select the option for authorising your client
- enter the estate’s UTR to get a request authorisation link to share with your client
- send your client an email with the request authorisation link and ask them to use it to authorise you before the date the link expires (you must tell your client which estate the authorisation link is for) – your client must sign in with the same user ID and password they used to claim the estate and accept the request to authorise you
How to update your estates details using the online service
Before you can update the details, or authorise an agent, you’ll need the Organisation Government Gateway user ID and password you used when you registered the estate. If you do not have one, you can create one the first time to go into the service.
HMRC services may be slow during busy times. Check if there are any problems with this service.
Last updated 27 September 2021 + show all updates
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Welsh translation has been added.
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First published.