Pay your Inheritance Tax bill

1. Overview

You must pay Inheritance Tax by the end of the sixth month after the person died.

Example If the person died in January, you must pay Inheritance Tax by 31 July.

There are different due dates if you’re making payments on a trust.

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) will charge you interest if you don’t pay by the due date.

How to pay

You’ll need to get a reference number before you can pay your Inheritance Tax bill.

Pay from your own bank account

You can pay from your own bank account or a joint account with the deceased:

You can claim the money back from the deceased’s estate or the beneficiaries once you get a ‘grant of representation’ (also known as ‘probate’). This is called ‘confirmation’ in Scotland.

Pay from accounts owned by the deceased

You can pay using:

accounts owned by the deceased
National Savings and Investments (NS&I) and government stock owned by the deceased

If you don’t know how much to pay

You can make payments before you know the exact amount of Inheritance Tax owed by the deceased person’s estate. These are known as ‘payments on account’.

Check your payment has been received

HMRC don’t send receipts for each payment you make. They’ll write to tell you when you’ve paid all the Inheritance Tax and interest you owe.

If you’ve paid through your own bank or building society, check your statement to confirm the payment has left your account.

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