So let’s say someone close to you has passed away and they were a landlord. You have been left the let property as part of their will and at some point you need to start declaring rental income on the money received. How and when?
It is actually quite complex and depends on precisely how the property has been left. Ironically though for something very complex HMRC are normally fairly relaxed so long as someone somewhere is declaring the rental cinema.
If you are the sole named beneficiary in the estate you can often just start to declare the rental income as your own from the date of death even though technically the rent belongs to the “estate” while it is being administered.
If you are directly named to receive the asset but other people are involved and receiving other things you can likely do the same and simply declare the income as your own.
If you are one of the residuary beneficiaries (one of the people that are sharing the “rest’ of the estate assets) then the executors of the will should prepare and submit income tax returns from the date of death through to the completion of the prior of administration. Once any assets are then distributed you will need to start declaring the income on your share of the rent.
There are so many things that could happen when inheriting from somebody’s estate though that this, more than most, is an area where proper advice should be taken.