Probate calculator England & Wales · rules as at 9 October 2026

Estimate inheritance tax on an estate

Enter what the person owned and owed on the date they died. The estimate updates as you type, and every figure traces back to a line above it.

1 What they owned
Their share, at market value on the date of death.
Including ISAs, which are not free of inheritance tax.
Shares, funds and bonds held outside a pension.
Cars, jewellery, furniture, money owed to them.
Other property, business, pensions and life insurance
Buy-to-let, holiday homes, property abroad.
A trading business or partnership interest they held.
The agricultural value of farmland and buildings.
Qualifying shares get 50% relief from April 2026.
Unused pension funds and death benefits.
2 What they owed
3 Allowances
At a tenth of the baseline amount the rate on the whole estate falls to 36%.
4 Gifts in their last seven years

Gifts made in the seven years before they died count against the nil-rate band before the estate can use it. Leave this out if there were none.

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How inheritance tax is worked out

Inheritance tax is charged on the value of everything someone owned when they died, less what they owed. The first slice is free of tax — the nil-rate band of £325,000 — and anything above the allowances available to the estate is taxed at 40%.

Most of the difficulty is in the allowances rather than the rate. Four things move the figure more than anything else.

  1. Whether a home passes to children or grandchildren. That adds the residence nil-rate band, up to £175,000, or double that for a couple.
  2. Whether a husband, wife or civil partner died first. Their unused allowances pass on, which is how a couple reaches £1,000,000.
  3. Gifts made in the last seven years. They take the nil-rate band before the estate can use it. See the seven-year rule.
  4. Whether the estate is above £2,000,000. Above that, the residence band is withdrawn by £1 for every £2 over, and is gone entirely by £2,350,000 for one person.

The figures this uses

RuleValue
Nil-rate band£325,000
Nil-rate band passed on from a late spouseup to £325,000
Residence nil-rate band£175,000
Residence band passed on from a late spouseup to £175,000
Residence band withdrawn above£2,000,000
Standard rate40%
Reduced rate, with a tenth to charity36%
Business and agricultural relief allowance£1,000,000 in full, then half
Annual gift exemption£3,000, plus one year carried forward
Probate application fee£526 above £5,000

What it does not cover

Trusts, the residence band downsizing addition, gifts the person kept the benefit of, quick succession relief, double taxation relief, non-UK domicile, woodlands relief, and the option to pay the tax in instalments. If any of those apply, treat the result as a starting point and take advice.

Inheritance tax is UK-wide. The probate figures here apply to England & Wales; Scotland uses confirmation and Northern Ireland has its own procedure.

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