Advising UK executors on a complex UK-German cross-border estate administration

We recently acted for the executors of a complex UK-German cross border estate administration matter.

The deceased had significant links with both England and Germany and left substantial assets across four different jurisdictions including a large landed estate in Germany.

We worked alongside the deceased’s long-standing advisers in Switzerland, Germany and the USA to devise a worldwide strategy to mitigate the risk of double taxation on the estate’s assets but also in order to administer the estate in the most efficient and practical manner.

We advanced a complicated non-domicile argument to HMRC, which after a compliance check with HMRC’s technical team, was accepted. As a result of the strategy, over £1.5m of UK inheritance tax was saved. The only assets within the scope of UK IHT were the assets within the UK and we identified appropriate reliefs and exemptions to bring the overall IHT liability to zero.

We also obtained a grant of representation allowing the assets within England and Wales to be collected without delay and the UK assets, including a residential property, to be sold.

*Please note this matter was concluded before the introduction of the new residence based system for assessing an estate’s liability to inheritance tax. From 6 April 2025, a new residence based system is used to ascertain whether the deceased’s worldwide assets become subject to UK IHT.