Appropriate assets to stop estate becoming complex

Trusts Discussion
1

If an estate has a property in it being sold worth more than £500,000, then if the personal representatives sell it then the estate becomes complex and needs to be registered accordingly with HMRC.

If on the same day as the date of sale the property is appropriated to the beneficiaries, who then sell the property, does this ‘get around’ the personal representatives selling the property thereby ensuring the estate does not become complex?

I can see other forum posts discussing if such a bare trust created on appropriating the assets is registerable but none on the implications of the estate, and in particular, in relation to the ‘complex’ thresholds.

Any help would be gratefully received.

2

I assume that merely effecting appropriations to beneficiaries in order to reduce the aggregate sale proceeds of assets sold by the PRs to below £500k (post 5.4.16) does not work.

The conditions laid down which need to be satisfied for informal tax payments to be permitted relate to the “estate” not the PRs, as such. It is therefore necessary for sales proceeds of assets sold from the estate (not by the PRs as such) in any one tax year to be less than £500k (deaths after 5.4.16).

Others may know differently.

Malcolm Finney