Right now I’m assuming that I do indeed need a special type of solicitor, as you said with international (or at least USA-UK) knowledge. I can’t recall why international issues came up when talking to my accountant, yet he made it clear he doesn’t do stuff outside the UK - and i dunno yet there are many different laws in the other countries of the UK so it may truly only be “England” (and sometimes Wales) that he could do accounting for. Yet if I know what to ask for he might know someone good & trust-able to refer me to.
As of now it looks like other than some minor fluctuations in appraisals - and my assumption is some of the nearby sale prices will apply - nothing super special about those properties or my mothers.
If the IRS really wants many years of tax returns, I don’t know if I can show them much so I’ll have to claim ignorance and throw myself at their mercy and get some tax guy there to assemble something. Had I been breaking the $100K (or so) limit I’m sure they’d have been in touch. There’s also some hope that my involvement in this is giving my IBAN and BIC and the funds move without being scrutinized by the IRS as my share of the inheritance should remain well below taxable levels. I’m prepared for trouble there, however.
Then comes the special kind of knowledgeable solicitor here, to whom I can show UK bank statements, perhaps coordinate with my accountant yet again, well below taxable levels so I hope I just mainly need to show it’s a foreign inheritance.
This is my hope and I’ll not argue it might be a bit naive. Yet the circumstances don’t seem too complicated right now,
I can even hope it’s as simple as Melbourne just said. The last time I inherited money it was my Aunt in Ireland and I was in Ireland with a Bank of Ireland account so my brothers and mother in the USA had to deal with things in reverse.
The UK Inheritance Tax exemption is pretty low, but it only applies if the DECEASED is domiciled in the UK. If your mother is a US citizen and resident the estate would only be subject to US Estate Tax, for which the exemption is $12+M. State Estate taxes may have a lower limit.
I assume you have dual citizenship.
Are you married? If so, is your spouse a Brit ?
If so, be very careful. A non-American citizen is usually exempt from IRS taxes on their income, but they are very much not exempt from American inheritence taxes.
Dual USA + ROI for me
Wife is Russian with presettled status that will become settled in about 5 weeks. And while she can likely pass the citizenship test (I scored pretty poorly on some 10 question sample) as she taught about England and Australia along with English as a professor in St. Petersburg, she has no plans to become a citizen here. Yet thanks for the heads up. Other than the IRS I’m not expecting any ruinous surprises. Yet.
The IRS can definitely ruin you.
If a non-cifizen spouse inherits from a US citizen , the estate of the deceased citizen has to pay a whopping 50% or 60% tax on the bequeathed money , before paying anything to the inheritee.
An IRA and the house will have different tax consequences in the US. In general, assets like cash and the house pass to heirs without a tax consequence. So if your mom had $100k in her bank account, that money would go to the heirs without any tax consequence. If the house is worth $500k, the heirs receive a house worth $500k and don’t have to pay any taxes. But the IRA is treated differently. The heirs end up with an “inherited IRA”. There’s no initial tax consequence for receiving the inherited IRA, but there are required withdrawals that will have a tax consequence. So if you end up with $100k in an inherited IRA, you may be required to take out $10k/year and that will be taxed like income. However, you said it was an “annuity”, which is not the same as an IRA. An IRA is like a special bank account that you deposit money into and can withdraw from it in retirement. An annuity is something where you give a bunch of money to an insurance company and they give you $X/mo. Annuities have a lot more variability and may or may not transfer to the heirs. It will be important to know more about your mom’s annuities and what they actually are to know what will happen.
Mainly from the USA. Setting aside the house for the moment, tomorrow my niece will be in contact with the company with the larger ($75K) annuity. My assumption is if we can lump sum that it’s less and may incur immediate tax burdens. So let’s say it’s $51K so it goes $17K as it divides into 3. As I would be much better off with control of some dollars, is there some way my niece can parse off some dollars? Would granting her power of attorney be the best way? When the house is sold I owe my brother about as much dollars. I would rather not be doing dollars-pounds-dollars so again she could (I haven’t even asked her yet) parse the dollars and by then I should be in the clear to receive pounds And that is if the IRS somehow does not block a wire transfer (via something like wise.com using IBAN & BIC).
I’d like to know if the IRS can and will indeed block this money transfer, as then I’m left needing my accountant here and some tax guy in the USA to piece together something to satisfy the IRS. I’d expect there to be some fines, yet since I do not owe them money maybe they can defer that till I have some dollars.
And I need the solicitor who does wills even in the 2nd best case of that money comes here I’d still expect it to be unavailable to me yet at least it’s there and I don’t have to ask for “No money down”
There is another big issue: I owe Chase Bank a substantial amount of money (less than $10K) and I was planning to contact them/collections tomorrow via my google phone and try and work out some repayment deal. I no longer have a bank account in the USA and opening one will almost certainly alert Chase/collections to discover I suddenly own 1/3 of a house and apply for a lien on that. It’s unsecured debt yet they can still do something lien-ish and scuttle that sale or at least make it somewhat less attractive to prospective buyers (I assume). So again, need some dollars.
My brother has ominously warned me about the judgement that may already be on the books and to check if I’m on a “watch list”, and even what to expect in Suffolk County if I get out of JFK. Is there really a way to see if I’m on a watch list? I think he’s over-reacting yet it may be prudent to know what happens. I had planned to go to the house to help with clearing it yet my presence in the USA does not seem imperative at the moment.
In all this back-and-forth, it makes me curious: for the USA and for Britain, are inheritance taxes the obligation of the estate before disbursement, or the heirs on receiving the inheritance?
That is a piece of my question. The will splits the annuities into 3 yet there is no “executor” per se. I assume my niece supplies them with bank accounts and in my case either IBAN/BIC or even just send it to my US Paypal account. That’s if the fund people do not first consult with the IRS. In that case, I can perhaps ask my niece to fund the tax consequences, yet I do not believe either of the three of us can have whatever “all the fund” is to disburse.
As for the house, I reckon it’s the executor (?) lawyer guy and he too may not be able to give my brother some dollars on my behalf, yet if my niece had power of attorney perhaps she could.
There has to be an executor to distribute the estate if it’s over a certain value. If one is not mentioned in the will (or that person is not available), then the probate court will appoint one. The common case is that the eldest child is appointed the executor.
There is another way to distribute assets like bank and investment accounts with account beneficiaries. Those financial accounts can have beneficiaries defined on them by the account holder before they die. That’s not part of the will or the estate. If the account holder dies, the funds are to be distributed to the people named as beneficiaries on the account. This kind of beneficiary distribution is not part of the estate or probate, and the executor does not need to be involved. Basically, someone shows up to the financial firm with a death certificate and the financial firm distributes the funds. The annuities with the 3-way split that doesn’t need an executor seems to be a case of defined beneficiaries rather than the will. If that’s the case, I’m not sure how to change the split. You could perhaps contact the financial company and say you don’t want your share, in which case the funds will be distributed to the other people listed as beneficiaries.
I’ve just looked over the annuity documents and only my mother’s name is on them. Not surprising - I’ve not opened any account where it says “If I die, the money goes to …”
My niece also sent a death certificate. I haven’t seen it, yet the will names her, myself and the MAGA nephew in DC as beneficiaries.
The nephew has blocked my brother, maybe myself and maybe my niece. She’ll find out perhaps tomorrow if his signature is necessary. I don’t know if the IRS is consulted or if Chase has some filing that banks check. I do not underestimate their powers and abilities yet it’s probably good advice to arrange some payback with Chase and find out how reasonable the IRS might be. I’ll need some dollars to determine any of that and these annuities are my only way.
Setting up beneficiaries is an optional step done after the account is created. Typically, you can do it from the account website, but sometimes you have to go into a local branch office. I’m not sure if the beneficiaries would be listed in the annuity contract. You might need to contact the firm who is handling the annuity to see if beneficiaries are specified.
My brother, the executor, said the annuities do not go through probate and the will is largely irrelevant but I am named as one-third beneficiary of the annuities and the contents of the house, though after 10 years I only had a very short list of things I wanted. My mother wisely (years ago) gave the oldest brother all the Waterford Crystal after the sister-in-law was given a set of Christmas plates and stuff and promptly sold them on eBay.
ETA: In the email with the scans of the annuities, he says each of us must contact at least one of the annuity firms and request the paperwork so it looks like we do not need any mutual cooperation, at least for that one, the larger one. Hopefully it doesn’t say “attach your last 10 Tax Returns”
Ask if the annuity firm if it can do a wire transfer to your bank or send you a check. There should be no need to have the money deposited into a US account (but I’m not sure).
Yeah, my understanding is the reason naming us in the will is “largely irrelevant” is that we are named in a document I have not seen. I’ve asked my brother to confirm, yet it’s likely when I call them tomorrow they’ll know who I am and the documents they send (I’ll pay extra for Fed-ex both ways if they cannot email them) allow for wire transfer though my USA eBay would be fine as well.
In my experience, if you have a US Social Security number, and a US street address (you can use a relative’s), the company can work with you. Otherwise, not so much. My lack of a US address has been a problem for reasons that they cannot articulate, but mostly seem to be “Computer says.”
I am a merchant on USA eBay. I may have just done something unwise.
I logged in there to see if there were anything that looks like a US bank as the PDF form of the lesser of the annuities at least was very USA-centric: State, ZIP and then below the ABA account number and ABA routing code. ABA is American Bankers Association, so clearly this would not have been the form to use for a transfer to the UK.
I was able to set up what to all intents is a bank account. You send money to that account/sort it’s like paying me on eBay/Paypal. Yet it does send up a smoke signal to Chase/collections - and I’ll assume they are vigilant enough to make note of it at least eventually. Though when I had a Citibank account they didn’t try and get any of it.
Now, I was going to contact them tomorrow anyway and try and make a deal where I can pay something per month via a dollar account. I was hoping my USA eBay could somehow be an option (without first having been converted to pounds) and as it turns out, with them partnering with a “real” bank I can now do so. Had I given it a bit more thought perhaps I should have waited till I had such a deal with the collections agency. I cannot pay off the debt entirely anyway as this lesser account has even less than I thought.
In fact, to satisfy Chase and the IRS I am of a mind that if the larger annuity clears the way for the house to be sold I suppose I’ll have to call it a win.
I’ve been posting a bad soap opera here. Thanks to all for the replies. I’m pretty sure I know what to do. I’ll take a break and start getting things done, starting tomorrow.
Just off the phone with oldest brother. One thing he told me was that same sister-in-law who sold the Christmas plates and stuff was pilfering my mother’s room while she was sleeping in there. Also the brother has one of those credit watch things set up and someone tried to open credit cards in his name. Also they know about the Chase proceedings against me and that puts me in peril of a subpoena if I show up to help in selling the house that he’ll get a third of. They’'re not doing anything, like clearing out the house. Nada. And until Chase considers my actions in good faith I cannot go to the house as they’ll call the Sherriff or someone.
Anyways, I’ll update when things improve. I don’t expect the insanity to go away till the house is sold.