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How to fill in form IHT401 — and when you need IHT401a instead

IHT401 is the schedule that supports a claim the deceased was not domiciled in the UK.

It is filed with the IHT400 by the executor or administrator, and there is no fee.

What changed on 6 April 2025 is the question underneath it: inheritance tax no longer asks where a person was domiciled, it asks whether they were a long-term UK resident — broadly, UK-resident for 10 of the last 20 tax years.

This walkthrough covers which of the two schedules you actually need, then works through IHT401's twenty-five boxes — the domicile claim, the twenty-year residence table, the life history HMRC uses to test intention, the pre-1974 married women's rules, and the estate and treaty questions — before covering IHT401a's own seven boxes in full.

Every figure and instruction was checked against HMRC's live forms and guidance in August 2026.

✓ Official source checked 23 August 2026 · GOV.UK last revised this form 16 May 2025IHT401 on GOV.UK
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United KingdomInformational, not legal or financial adviceOfficial source: GOV.UK
Official form · always current

This is the same official IHT401 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on GOV.UK — the link below fetches the current version live from GOV.UK the moment you click it, so it can never go out of date.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: May 2025 · confirmed on GOV.UK 23 August 2026

This walkthrough takes IHT401 box by box, in plain English — and starts with the question the form itself now turns on. For deaths on or after 6 April 2025, most estates need IHT401a instead, because inheritance tax stopped following domicile on that date and started following long-term UK residence. IHT401 remains the right schedule for deaths up to 5 April 2025, and after that only where a double taxation convention applies because of the deceased's domicile.

The mistake the April 2025 reform created
Filing IHT401 for a death on or after 6 April 2025 because that is what the guidance you found online says.

From that date the test is not domicile but long-term UK residence, and the schedule for a non-resident claim is IHT401a — a different form, asking for twenty tax years of residence history rather than a life story.

IHT401 survives for deaths up to 5 April 2025, and after that date only where a double taxation convention applies because of the deceased's domicile.

Most third-party IHT401 guidance still in circulation was written before the reform and does not say this. Check the date on anything you read, including this page.
The form, in summary
Valoren
IHT4014 pages25 fields guided
With Valoren1 hour
with the residence history and identity documents already in the file
Without Valoren4–8 hours
the twenty-year residence history is the work — most of it is retrieval from HMRC records, old passports and other people's memories, not form-filling
Deadline
12 monthsfrom the date of death
(filed with IHT400)
Who Files
Executoror administrator
with IHT400
£
Fee
Freeschedule to
IHT400
Filed with HMRC
Draws from your Estate File
the records this form is built from
PersonalPersonal Record·Civil Dossier·Property Folio·Financial Accounts·Digital Access Map·Asset Inventory·Income & Outgoings·Policy Index·Legal Instruments·Medical Abstract·Succession Plan·Digital Legacy Registry·Business Interests & Directorships·Funeral & Committal Wishes·Dependent Care & Handoff·RegistryMaster Registry·Renewal Register·People, Authority & Contacts·Designated Places·Kinship & Succession Map·SecureAccess Controls·Recovery Routes·Custody & Contingency·EventsDeath & Estate Activation·Incapacity & Medical Proxy·Absence & Continuity Cover·Access Loss & Identity Recovery·Legal Dispute & Evidence Protocol·Theft & Asset Compromise·Property Damage & Incident Response·Relocation & Address Update Protocol·Separation & Custody Documentation·Business Interruption & Continuity·PersonalPersonal Record·Civil Dossier·Property Folio·Financial Accounts·Digital Access Map·Asset Inventory·Income & Outgoings·Policy Index·Legal Instruments·Medical Abstract·Succession Plan·Digital Legacy Registry·Business Interests & Directorships·Funeral & Committal Wishes·Dependent Care & Handoff·RegistryMaster Registry·Renewal Register·People, Authority & Contacts·Designated Places·Kinship & Succession Map·SecureAccess Controls·Recovery Routes·Custody & Contingency·EventsDeath & Estate Activation·Incapacity & Medical Proxy·Absence & Continuity Cover·Access Loss & Identity Recovery·Legal Dispute & Evidence Protocol·Theft & Asset Compromise·Property Damage & Incident Response·Relocation & Address Update Protocol·Separation & Custody Documentation·Business Interruption & Continuity·
Legal basisStatute

IHT401 supports a claim that the deceased was not domiciled in the UK.

For all deaths up to 5 April 2025 that claim is the whole question, and IHT401 is the schedule that answers it.

For deaths on or after 6 April 2025 the connecting factor for inheritance tax is no longer domicile but long-term UK residence — being UK-resident for at least 10 of the 20 tax years immediately before the tax year of death (IHTA 1984 ss.6A–6C, inserted by Finance Act 2025).

From that date IHT401 is needed only where a double taxation convention applies because of the deceased's domicile; in every other case where you claim the deceased was not a long-term UK resident, the schedule is IHT401a.

Both are supplementary schedules to the IHT400: no separate fee, no separate submission, no separate deadline.

Section by section

The form, section by section.

Before you start, you’ll need:
  • Who Files — The executor (if there is a will) or the administrator (if there is no will), as part of the IHT400 account
  • 4 pages · 25 fields guided
  • Draws from your Estate File — Personal Record, Civil Dossier, Property Folio, Financial Accounts
Section 1

Which schedule you actually need — the 6 April 2025 fork

Before the first box, one question decides everything: did the person die before or after 6 April 2025?

On that date inheritance tax stopped asking where someone was domiciled and started asking whether they were a long-term UK resident. The form you need depends on the answer.

Deaths up to 5 April 2025 — IHT401

The connecting factor is domicile, including deemed domicile under the old rule (UK-resident for 15 of the previous 20 tax years).

If you have claimed the deceased was not domiciled in the UK, IHT401 is the schedule that supports the claim, and this walkthrough covers it box by box.

Nothing about a pre-6-April-2025 death is affected by the reform.

Deaths on or after 6 April 2025 — IHT401 only for treaty cases

The form's own instruction is narrow: fill it in for a death on or after 6 April 2025 only where a double taxation convention applies because of the deceased's domicile.

HMRC's IHT400 Notes put it the same way at box 6b.

That is the one surviving route into IHT401 after the reform — because four of the ten UK conventions pre-date 1975 and allocate taxing rights by domicile, so domicile can still decide the outcome even though domestic law no longer uses it.

Deaths on or after 6 April 2025 — IHT401a in every other case

If you are claiming the deceased was not a long-term UK resident, the schedule is IHT401a, covered in full at section 7 below.

You then complete the rest of the IHT400 with UK assets only — with one exception HMRC spells out: lifetime transfers made while the person was a long-term UK resident (or before 6 April 2025 while UK-domiciled) still belong on the account.

When neither schedule is needed

Where the deceased was not a long-term UK resident at death, had never been one since 6 April 2025, was never UK-domiciled or deemed domiciled before that date, and the UK estate consisted only of cash or listed shares and securities passing under a will, intestacy or by survivorship with a gross value of no more than £150,000, the estate is an excepted estate.

The return is then form IHT207 rather than an IHT400 — so there is no schedule to complete at all.

Why most guidance on this form is out of date

The reform is recent, and the great majority of IHT401 guidance in circulation was written when domicile was still the test.

It reads plausibly and it is wrong for any death from 6 April 2025.

Check the date on anything you rely on — including this page, which was checked against form IHT401 (HMRC 04/25), form IHT401a (HMRC 12/25) and the IHT400 Notes (04/26) in August 2026.

Before the first box, one question decides everything: did the person die before or after 6 April 2025?

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) · IHT401
Section 2

Header block and boxes 1 to 5 — the domicile claim

The top of page 1 identifies the estate; boxes 1 to 5 establish whether there is a claim to make at all and whether HMRC has already looked at the question.

Name of deceased, date of death, Inheritance Tax reference

Copy the name and date exactly as they appear on the death certificate, and identically to the IHT400 — a mismatch between a schedule and its account is a routine cause of correspondence.

The Inheritance Tax reference is only filled in if one has already been issued; you apply for it on form IHT422, and you need it before you can pay.

Leave it blank if you do not have one yet.

Box 1 — was the deceased domiciled in the UK at any time during the 3 years up to the date of death?

This is a stop question, and it is the only box on the form that can end it.

The form's own wording: if Yes, do not complete this form, as HMRC will regard the deceased as domiciled in the UK, and their entire estate must be included in form IHT400.

Answer it on the facts, not on the outcome you want — HMRC's compliance work on this schedule starts here.

Box 2 — has the deceased's domicile been agreed for other HMRC purposes?

No takes you straight to box 6.

Yes opens boxes 3 to 5.

An agreement usually arises from an income tax or capital gains enquiry during the person's lifetime, or from a remittance-basis position.

It is useful evidence, but it does not bind HMRC for inheritance tax: domicile is tested on the facts as they stood at death, and a person's domicile can change after an earlier agreement.

Boxes 3, 4 and 5 — the agreement's details

Box 3 is the date of the agreement.

Box 4 is the name and address, including postcode, of the HMRC office that agreed the domicile.

Box 5 is the HMRC reference number for it.

If the paperwork cannot be found, give what you have and say so rather than leaving the boxes blank without explanation — HMRC can usually trace an agreement from a reference and an approximate date.

The top of page 1 identifies the estate; boxes 1 to 5 establish whether there is a claim to make at all and whether HMRC has already looked at the question.

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) · IHT401
Section 3

Box 6 — twenty tax years of residence history

Even on a domicile claim, the box that decides how hard HMRC looks is the residence one. It asks a six-year question and then, if the answer is Yes, a twenty-year one.

The question as the form asks it

Was the deceased resident in the UK for Income Tax purposes during the 6 years before the date of death?

If Yes, the form then asks for details of every period the deceased was treated as resident in the UK during the previous 20 tax years, entered as From and To pairs across four columns.

If No, the box is short — but the twenty-year picture will still matter if a long-term UK residence question arises elsewhere on the account.

Tax years, not calendar years

A UK tax year runs from 6 April to 5 April.

A person who arrived in September 2019 was resident for the 2019 to 2020 tax year, not from 2019.

Where split-year treatment applied, that year counts as a year of UK residence — HMRC says so expressly on the residence schedules.

How residence is actually determined

For tax years from 2013 to 2014 onwards it is the Statutory Residence Test — a rules-based test of days present, ties to the UK and work patterns, not a matter of impression.

For earlier years the old residence rules and case law apply, which are far less mechanical.

Where the twenty-year window straddles April 2013, expect the earlier years to need more evidence and more judgement.

Where the evidence comes from

Self assessment returns and their residence pages; P60s and P45s; the deceased's HMRC personal tax account if anyone has access; old passports and travel records; tenancy agreements, council tax bills and utility accounts on both sides.

Build the twenty-year table once, carefully — the same table is the entire substance of schedule IHT401a, so the work is not wasted whichever form you end up filing.

Even on a domicile claim, the box that decides how hard HMRC looks is the residence one. It asks a six-year question and then, if the answer is Yes, a twenty-year one.

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) · IHT401
Section 4

Boxes 7 to 14 — the life HMRC uses to test intention

Page 2 is a biography.

HMRC's stated reason for asking is to get a full picture of the deceased's life in order to decide their domicile — because domicile turns on intention, and intention is proved by how someone actually lived.

Boxes 7 to 10 — birth, nationality and domicile of origin

Box 7 is where the deceased was born, as town and country.

Box 8 is their nationality at birth; box 10 their nationality at death.

Box 9 is their domicile of origin — which is not the same as either.

A domicile of origin is acquired at birth and generally follows the father's domicile at that date where the parents were married, and the mother's where they were not.

It is never lost, only displaced by a domicile of choice, and it revives if that choice is abandoned.

Box 11 — when the deceased left the UK to set up their main home abroad

Dates, plural — the form allows for more than one departure.

What matters is the move that established a main home elsewhere, not a long holiday or a posting.

Where someone left, returned and left again, give each departure: an intervening period of UK residence is exactly the kind of fact that decides a domicile question, and omitting it looks worse than explaining it.

Boxes 12 and 13 — education, employment, and visits back to the UK

Box 12 is the education and employment history.

Box 13 asks for the deceased's visits to the UK, how long they stayed, the address at which they stayed and the purpose of those visits — and it is the box HMRC reads hardest.

A pattern of long, regular stays at a retained UK home, particularly one kept available all year, is the classic fact that defeats a claim of non-UK domicile.

Box 14 — why you say they did not intend to return

This is the heart of the schedule: tell HMRC why you believe the deceased did not intend to remain in or return to the UK, and provide any evidence supporting it.

Evidence that helps: a will made under foreign law, a burial or cremation plot abroad, a home owned rather than rented overseas, foreign citizenship taken up, where the family, the doctor and the bank actually were.

Evidence that hurts, and should still be disclosed with an explanation: a UK property kept for personal use, a UK burial plot, membership kept up here, or anything the person said or wrote about coming home.

If you run out of space

The form's own instruction is to use the Additional information box on page 16 of form IHT400, or a separate sheet if necessary.

Use a separate sheet where the history is genuinely long, head it with the deceased's name and the box number, and reference it in the box itself.

A cramped, abbreviated box 13 or 14 invites the enquiry that a clear attachment avoids.

Page 2 is a biography.

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) · IHT401
Section 5

Boxes 15 to 19 — women married on or before 1 January 1974

Page 3 exists for one historic rule. The form routes to it explicitly: if the deceased was male, go to box 20; if female, start at box 15.

Why the form asks

Until the Domicile and Matrimonial Proceedings Act 1973 took effect on 1 January 1974, a married woman automatically took her husband's domicile — a domicile of dependency she could not hold independently.

The form states the reason in terms: a married woman's domicile was affected by her husband's domicile if they were married before that date.

For a woman who married on or before 1 January 1974 and has now died, her husband's domicile in that period can still be the fact that decides her estate.

Box 15 — was the deceased married on or before 1 January 1974?

No takes you to box 20 and page 3 is finished.

Yes opens boxes 16 to 19.

Note the date is the date of the marriage, not the date it ended: a woman married in 1968 and widowed or divorced in 1971 still answers Yes.

Boxes 16, 17 and 18 — the husband's origins

Box 16 is where the husband was born, as town and country.

Box 17 is his nationality at birth.

Box 18 is his nationality now, or his nationality when he died if he has predeceased her.

These are often the hardest facts on the whole form to establish, because the man in question may have died decades ago in another country.

Box 19 — the husband's education and employment history

Only up to and including 1 January 1974, and only for the period while she was married to him.

If she had more than one husband before that date, the form asks for each of them on the same basis.

Marriage certificates, his death certificate, naturalisation or citizenship papers, service records and old employment references are the usual sources; where a fact genuinely cannot be established, say what was searched rather than leaving a silent gap.

Page 3 exists for one historic rule. The form routes to it explicitly: if the deceased was male, go to box 20; if female, start at box 15.

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) · IHT401
Section 6

Boxes 20 to 25 — the estate, the spouse exemption and foreign tax

Page 4 turns from history to money. Two of these boxes carry the traps that cost estates real money: the capped spouse exemption, and the treatment of tax already paid abroad.

Box 20 — who benefits under the law or will of the claimed country of domicile

Not who benefits under the English will: who benefits under the law or will that applies in the country you say the deceased was domiciled in.

In much of Europe, forced heirship gives fixed shares to children regardless of what any will says, so the two answers genuinely differ.

Where they differ, the difference is the point of the box — it tests whether the domicile claim is consistent with how the estate is actually being distributed.

Box 21 — are you deducting surviving spouse or civil partner exemption?

No takes you to box 22.

Yes asks for brief details of the assets the surviving spouse or civil partner will receive following the death.

A spouse exemption claim only works if the spouse actually inherits — which is why box 20's answer and box 21's answer have to agree with each other.

The cap most people do not know about

Where the person making the transfer is a long-term UK resident and the recipient spouse or civil partner is not, the spouse or civil partner exemption is limited to the amount of the nil-rate band at the time of the transfer — currently £325,000.

For transfers made before 6 April 2013 the limit was £55,000.

Before 6 April 2025 the same cap applied by reference to domicile rather than residence.

This is not a rounding error: on a mixed-status couple it is the difference between an unlimited exemption and one that stops at the nil-rate band.

The election that removes the cap — and what it costs

Personal representatives can elect for the deceased to be treated as a long-term UK resident (before 6 April 2025, as UK-domiciled).

That removes the cap and makes the spouse exemption unlimited — but it brings worldwide assets into UK inheritance tax.

HMRC's guidance is blunt: once an election is made, it cannot be withdrawn.

It ceases to have effect only after 10 successive tax years of non-residence under IHTA 1984 s.267ZD(8); an election made under the old domicile rules ceased after 4 successive tax years.

The arithmetic can go either way and it is irreversible — this is the point on the form to take advice.

Box 22 — how the estate is to be distributed, and how you established it

Explain the distribution and your basis for it.

The form asks you to attach a copy of any professional advice you have had from someone in the deceased's country of domicile — a notaire's or foreign lawyer's opinion is the single most useful attachment this schedule can carry.

If you have not taken foreign advice on a substantial foreign estate, that is usually a sign to take it.

Boxes 23, 24 and 25 — foreign assets, the treaty, and foreign tax

Box 23 asks whether the deceased left any assets outside the UK, and if so their approximate value — an approximate figure only, because the itemised schedule for foreign assets is IHT417.

Box 24 asks whether you expect a double taxation convention or agreement to apply to any of the deceased's assets.

The UK has ten: modern conventions with the Republic of Ireland, South Africa, the United States, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland, and older estate-duty-era agreements with France, Italy, India and Pakistan, which work differently and contain no deemed-domicile provision.

Box 25 asks whether any foreign tax is to be paid on UK assets as a result of the death.

Foreign death tax is credited, never deducted

This is the error that recurs on every cross-border estate: treating inheritance or estate tax paid abroad as a debt of the estate.

It is not a liability on the IHT400.

It is relieved by credit — under the relevant convention where one exists, and otherwise by unilateral relief under IHTA 1984 s.159, capped at the UK tax attributable to the same property.

Deducting it both understates the estate and forfeits the correct relief.

Page 4 turns from history to money. Two of these boxes carry the traps that cost estates real money: the capped spouse exemption, and the treatment of tax already paid abroad.

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) · IHT401
Section 7

Schedule IHT401a — the long-term UK residence schedule

For a death on or after 6 April 2025 where you claim the deceased was not a long-term UK resident, this is the schedule — not IHT401.

It is four pages and seven boxes, two of which are twenty-row tables. The current version is HMRC 12/25.

The test the whole schedule serves

An individual is a long-term UK resident if they were resident in the UK for at least 10 of the 20 tax years immediately before the tax year in which the chargeable event, including death, arises — IHTA 1984 s.6A, inserted by Finance Act 2025.

A long-term UK resident is within UK inheritance tax on worldwide assets.

Someone who is not is within it on UK assets only, plus any lifetime transfers made while they were long-term UK resident or, before 6 April 2025, UK-domiciled.

Boxes 1, 1a and 2 — assets, treaty and foreign tax

Box 1 asks whether the deceased left any assets outside the UK, with an approximate value if so.

Box 1a asks whether you expect a double taxation convention or agreement to apply to any of the assets.

Box 2 asks whether any foreign tax is to be paid on UK assets as a result of the death.

These mirror boxes 23 to 25 of IHT401 exactly — the same three questions, asked of a residence claim rather than a domicile one.

Box 3 — the tax year of death

Confirm the tax year in which the death occurred, as a from-and-to pair of years.

Everything after this box counts backwards from it, so getting it wrong shifts the entire table by a year.

Remember a death on, say, 2 April falls in the tax year ending that 5 April, not the one beginning 6 April.

Box 4 — the twenty-year residence table

Twenty numbered rows, starting with the tax year before the year in box 3 and going back a further 19 tax years.

Each row takes the tax year, a Yes or No for UK residence, and the country of residence where it was not the UK.

Split years count as UK residence and must be shown as such.

The form carries two short-circuits printed on its face: if there are 11 or more years of non-residence, or 10 consecutive years of non-residence within rows 1 to 19, you do not need to complete the rest of the form.

In all other cases, go to box 5.

Boxes 5 and 6 — the tail

Box 5 confirms the last tax year in which the deceased was UK resident.

Box 6 is a second twenty-row table, starting with the tax year before that and going back a further 18 years.

Its purpose is the tail: someone who leaves the UK does not fall out of scope immediately.

HMRC's guidance sets a minimum of 3 tax years for someone with 13 or fewer years of residence, rising by one tax year for each additional year of residence, to a maximum of 10 tax years for someone resident throughout all 20 years.

The form notes the same point in its own words: a person who leaves the UK with fewer than 20 out of the last 20 years of UK residence may have a reduction in the number of years they remain a long-term UK resident.

Box 7 — further information and the transitional provision

A free-text box for anything else about the person's tax residency.

The form names one thing specifically: say so if transitional provisions apply because the person was not domiciled in the UK at 30 October 2024 and has not been resident in the UK in any tax year from and including 2025 to 2026.

That provision protects people who were already non-domiciled when the reform was announced and who have not returned since — and it is easy to miss, because nothing else on the form prompts for it.

For a death on or after 6 April 2025 where you claim the deceased was not a long-term UK resident, this is the schedule — not IHT401.

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) · IHT401
Section 8

Filing, deadlines and where it goes

Neither schedule is filed on its own, and neither carries its own deadline. Both travel with the IHT400.

Where to send it

With the IHT400 and every other schedule, to Inheritance Tax, HM Revenue and Customs, BX9 1HT.

There is no separate submission and no fee.

HMRC's Inheritance Tax Helpline is 0300 123 1072, or +44 300 123 1072 from outside the UK.

The account deadline and its penalties

HMRC's IHT400 guidance says the form must be sent to them within 12 months of the date of death.

A late account without reasonable excuse can attract a penalty of up to £200, and if the delay extends a further 12 months — two years after death — a penalty of up to £3,000 on top.

The statutory rule in IHTA 1984 s.216 is expressed as 12 months from the end of the month of death; where the two differ, work to the earlier date and you cannot be caught out.

Tax and interest run on a different clock

Interest on unpaid inheritance tax runs from the first day of the seventh month after the month in which the person died.

HMRC's own example: a person dies on 7 January, interest runs from 1 August.

It does not matter why the tax was not paid by then — the interest is still due.

And tax and interest must be paid before a grant can issue, which is why the payment clock, not the filing clock, usually sets the real timetable.

What goes on the rest of the IHT400

Where the deceased was not within worldwide scope, complete the IHT400 with UK assets only — except for lifetime transfers made while they were a long-term UK resident, or before 6 April 2025 while UK-domiciled, which still belong on the account.

The foreign assets themselves, where they are in scope, are itemised on schedule IHT417 with a date-of-death exchange rate shown for each one.

When to bring in specialists

A single foreign bank account and a clear twenty-year residence history is work you can do yourself.

A treaty claim, a forced-heirship estate, a mixed-status couple weighing the irreversible spouse election, or a residence history with genuinely uncertain years is specialist territory.

Cross-border estates are where an early, focused professional engagement reliably costs less than unwinding the alternative.

Neither schedule is filed on its own, and neither carries its own deadline. Both travel with the IHT400.

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) · IHT401

Many people file IHT401 themselves — that is what this walkthrough is for. If the estate behind it has stopped being simple — inheritance tax to pay, a trust, foreign assets, a dispute — Signum, Valoren’s own specialist desk, can take it on, and we say so plainly: it starts with a free intake, and if you do not need us, we will tell you. Prefer an independent adviser? STEP and the Chartered Institute of Taxation both keep public member directories, and neither pays Valoren a referral fee.

FAQ

IHT401 questions, answered.

Only in one situation: where a double taxation convention applies because of the deceased's domicile.

For every other claim that the deceased was outside the worldwide scope of UK inheritance tax, the schedule is IHT401a, because from 6 April 2025 the connecting factor is long-term UK residence rather than domicile.

IHT401 remains the correct schedule for all deaths up to 5 April 2025.
Someone who was resident in the UK for at least 10 of the 20 tax years immediately before the tax year in which they died.

A long-term UK resident is within UK inheritance tax on their worldwide assets; someone who is not is within it on their UK assets only.

Residence is decided by the Statutory Residence Test for tax years from 2013 to 2014 onwards, and split years count as UK residence.
Between 3 and 10 tax years, depending on how long they had been resident.

HMRC's guidance sets a minimum of 3 tax years for someone with 13 or fewer years of residence, rising by one tax year for each additional year of residence, to a maximum of 10 tax years for someone resident throughout all 20 years.

This is the 'tail', and it is what schedule IHT401a's second residence table exists to establish.
IHT401 asks about domicile — where the deceased was born, their nationality, why you say they did not intend to return to the UK.

IHT401a asks about residence — a year-by-year table of the last twenty tax years, plus a second table establishing how long they remain in scope after leaving.

IHT401 is 25 numbered boxes of narrative; IHT401a is 7 boxes, two of which are twenty-row tables.
There is no fee. It is a supplementary schedule to the IHT400 and goes in the same envelope.

HMRC's IHT400 guidance says the account must reach them within 12 months of the date of death; a late account without reasonable excuse can attract a penalty of up to £200, and up to a further £3,000 if the delay reaches two years after death.

Separately, interest on unpaid inheritance tax runs from the first day of the seventh month after the month of death, whatever the reason for the delay.
It applies, but it is capped.

Where the person making the transfer is a long-term UK resident and the recipient spouse or civil partner is not, the exemption is limited to the nil-rate band in force at the time of the transfer — currently £325,000 (for transfers before 6 April 2013 the limit was £55,000).

Personal representatives can elect for the deceased to be treated as a long-term UK resident, which removes the cap but brings worldwide assets into charge.

HMRC's guidance is blunt that once made the election cannot be withdrawn, so it needs proper advice before it is signed.
Ten.

The Republic of Ireland, South Africa, the United States, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland have modern conventions.

France, Italy, India and Pakistan have older agreements dating from the estate duty era before 1975, which work differently and contain no deemed-domicile provision.

Where no convention applies, foreign death tax is relieved by unilateral credit instead — never by deducting it as a debt of the estate.
Possibly not.

Where the deceased was not a long-term UK resident at death, had never been one since 6 April 2025 and was never UK-domiciled or deemed domiciled before then, and their UK estate consisted only of cash or listed shares and securities passing under a will, intestacy or by survivorship with a gross value of no more than £150,000, the estate is an excepted estate.

In that case the return is form IHT207 and there is no IHT400 — and therefore no IHT401 or IHT401a at all.

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Where this fits

IHT401 is one form. The file behind it is the rest.

Forms are easier when the records are ready.

For IHT401 that means the deceased's place of birth and nationality at birth and at death, the dates they left the UK, twenty tax years of residence evidence, marriage and (for a woman married on or before 1 January 1974) her husband's history, any foreign will, and the addresses of every home held here and abroad.

The Personal Record holds the identity and life history; the Civil Dossier holds the marriage and citizenship documents; the Property Folio holds the homes on both sides of the question — which is precisely what boxes 7 to 19 ask for.

When you're ready — not before — our £179 Executor's First Hour walks you through registering the death, notifying banks and pensions, and getting probate started, in the right order. The free checklist above covers the essentials; this is for when you'd rather have a hand to hold. Executor's First Hour — £179

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC)25 fieldsNo separate fee — this is a supplementary schedule filed with IHT4001 hour (with the residence history and identity documents already in the file) with Valoren
The return this attaches to

This is one schedule. It attaches to the IHT400 — the main Inheritance Tax account — which is where every schedule you complete comes together.

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