Tax liability for dead person

Hi all
My biological father (with whom I had no contact most of my life) has died and left me about 40k.
However his brother has since told me that my father who sold a business five years ago never paid his Capital Gains Tax, about a 100k! He has warned me not to accept the inheritance, as I might have to pay the 60k as well if the Revenue cop on that money is owed during probate. Is this true? I never had a good relationship with my dad so the 40k is of no sentimental value to me but obviously money is money. Definitely couldn't afford to pay a massive debt to Revenue though which was nothing to do with me.

This will all wash out during the course of the Probate.

If there is a will, then the executor will need to file an Inland Revenue Affidavit - Form CA24 - with the application for Probate. That will be sent to Revenue and will show the PPS numbers for the Deceased and also any beneficiaries receiving more than €16750.

I'm assuming there is a will as you say - "left me about 40K"

If your father was on Revenue radar, that CA 24 will trigger a response from them

If your father was not on Revenue radar, it is up to the executor to disclose the Revenue debt in the Form CA24.

You could not be made responsible for the entirety of the CGT liability. However, if you get/take the 40K , you may have to repay that if the estate is insolvent

You don't state how much the estate is worth and if the estate can discharge the CGT liability and bequests

Is there some suggestion in all of this that the 40K won't come by way of Probate but by some other nefarious means?

mf

You need specific tax advise on this, preferably from an experienced and reliable tax consultant. There are strict time limits within which Revenue can raise assessments for unpaid taxes on the estate of a deceased person, however I suspect that the fact that your father's estate doesn't seem to have been finalised as yet will make these limits moot in this case.

I'd also wonder about whether the €100k CGT liability is real or not. He'd need to have sold the business for a phenomenal sum 5 years ago to generate such a big liability on the resulting gain and if he was aged over 55 years, and had owned and run the business for more than 10 years, and met a few other conditions, he would presumably have been entitled to retirement relief which could have wiped out the full liability. If he had an accountant or tax advisor at the time, you should first check this with them.

Tommy's spot on. The "advice" to date sounds bar-stool in nature. Knowing very little about the case, but based on the slightly dysfunctional nature of the relationships, I'd be wary of your uncle's motives.

The executor is a solicitor my uncle uses, he wouldn't know anything about the alleged Revenue debt. I have no idea about the business or how much it was worth. I don't know anything about tax advice or retirement relief. Not sure how else the 40k would come to me other than through a probate i.e. the solicitor - I don't have any access to my father's account. Wouldn't even know what bank he uses.
There is nothing else in the estate because of various gambling problems etc - all the money is gone.
My uncle seems to think that because my father got State pension he 'got away' with fiddling the Revenue, but I don't know how true that is.
Anyway he is only dead a couple of months and it's early days so I will definitely go to see someone professional before I sign anything. It's actually a bit embarrassing how shady he was... I feel like just ignoring the whole thing.

By any chance is your uncle hoping that you will hand back the 40k so that he might be able to claim it for himself?

marymooney said:

There is nothing else in the estate because of various gambling problems etc - all the money is gone.
My uncle seems to think that because my father got State pension he 'got away' with fiddling the Revenue, but I don't know how true that is.
Anyway he is only dead a couple of months and it's early days so I will definitely go to see someone professional before I sign anything. It's actually a bit embarrassing how shady he was... I feel like just ignoring the whole thing.

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Hi Mary,

I wouldn't worry too much about the possibility of a Revenue debt of the order that's being suggested. If your late father had gambling problems it frankly beggars belief that he would have achieved a massive capital gain on the sale of his business, least of all in 2010 or 2011 when the country was on its knees and capital-starved businesses were shutting down almost on a daily basis.

I wouldn't pay too much heed to your uncle either.
Good luck with it