HMRC are planning to launch an online inheritance tax service during the 2015-16 tax year. This will allow executors and their representatives to submit IHT accounts via the internet. Interestingly the announcement also refers to “probate” but not “confirmation”. That may mean that it simply did not occur to those making the announcement to consider the situation in Scotland, or as confirmation is primarily a devolved matter that part of the announcement does not apply to Scotland.

That said this is a positive development. More detail will hopefully follow soon and this may mean the beginning of the end for paper inheritance tax forms.

The announcement can be found here (need to scroll down to the the bottom of the page).