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Government’s plans to increase probate fees.
The government in its unending quest to fill the exchequer’s coffers now has its sight on dead people. Or to be more precise probate fees.
In mid-February it published a consultation setting out proposals for reforming – note that it does not use the word ‘increasing’ – the fee payable for an application for a grant of probate.
The fee for all estates valued above £5 000 is currently £215 (or £155 when grant of probate is sought by a solicitor). The proposed regime will move from a flat to a banded approach rising with the value of the estate. The threshold for estates below which no fee is payable would rise from £5 000 to £50 000 which according to the consultation would lift some 30 000 out of paying any fee. However thereafter the fees rise astronomically as...
