This is the same official IHT400 file HM Revenue & Customs publishes on GOV.UK — the link below fetches the current version live from GOV.UK the moment you click it, so it can never go out of date.
Current version: August 2026 · confirmed on GOV.UK 23 August 2026
Five questions about the estate.
Answer yes or no. We then tell you — in plain English — exactly which sections to complete, which schedules attach, and which sections you can leave blank.
The cost of an IHT400 is rarely the form. It is the search around it.
The hours families lose reading the form and chasing records may fall to an afternoon once the records are to hand.
Arrive organised and a professional can check a prepared summary in an hour or two — far less than preparing the account from scratch on the clock.
Every section is mapped before you start — so you know which apply and which to skip, without wondering whether you've missed one.
The sixteen sections, set out in full.
Each row names the records that feed it, HMRC's own box count and a realistic time. Open any row to read what it covers — and answer the five questions above to mark which apply to this estate.
Every row above is mapped in the account today — its title, the records that feed it, the box count and a realistic time. Box-by-box plain-English help on each individual HMRC box arrives next release.
What a prepared draft looks like.
Below is a specimen — a worked example showing how figures sit in HMRC's own layout, watermarked and disclaimed. It is here so you can see the shape of a completed IHT400 before you start filling one in. It is an illustration, not your estate: nothing on this page collects your figures, and no draft is produced from it. Check line by line against the official form before you sign. The preview below shows exactly how it's laid out.
Arrive organised. Let the professional advise, not search.
A solicitor typically charges around £3,000 to prepare an IHT400 from scratch — far less when the records are already to hand and the draft is prepared.
Where a cross-border element, trust, or business relief applies, a specialist's eye is worth it. Valoren is not a tax adviser; we help you prepare.
The Executor's Companion covers IHT400 box by box. We'll send it, and let you know when the full draft builder is live.
Records this form usually needs.
Almost every hour spent on an IHT400 goes on finding these — not writing them down. Gather them once and the form follows.
The easiest IHT400 is the one your records have already prepared.
Valoren records these before the form is prepared — so when an executor needs the IHT400, the figures are already to hand.
- This walkthrough maps every section and the records that feed it. Box-by-box plain-English help on each individual HMRC box arrives next release.
- Valoren is not a tax adviser. The draft is a structured composition of your inputs — always check it against the official IHT400 before signing.
- Any cross-border element, trust, or business relief is worth a specialist's eye. We'll say so plainly where it applies.
After IHT400 — what comes next.
Once IHT is paid (or arranged via the Direct Payment Scheme via IHT423), HMRC issues IHT421. That's the receipt the Probate Registry needs to grant probate.
- PA1P walkthrough The probate application form, walked through field by field.
- How IHT works (background) The plain-English reference. Useful before you start.
- See Executor's First Hour Our £179 walkthrough for registering the death, notifying banks and pensions, and getting probate started, in the right order.
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