Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the processing time of inheritance tax queries, and what steps they are taking to reduce that waiting time to ensure that inheritance tax can be paid on time.

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is consistently exceeding its service standards of processing over 80% of inheritance tax returns for estates within 15 working days. Once these returns have been processed, most customers will be able to pay any inheritance tax due on time and proceed to apply for probate.

The inheritance tax helpline is also meeting HMRC’s telephony service levels by handling over 85% of customer calls to advisers.

HMRC has also increased numbers deployed to wider inheritance tax work to meet the service standard.

The government announced at Autumn Budget 2024 that it is investing in digitalising the inheritance tax service from 2027-28 to provide a modern, easy-to-use system, making returns and paying tax simpler and quicker.