As of 13 August 2026, AI cannot check if inheritance tax is due.
This still needs a person who signs their name to it.
Can you do it?
15 minutesto a draft.
n/ait cannot be self-verified.
Cost, all in£0
Skill neededchat-fluent
Who has to check ita professional
What the alternative costsThe supplied tool data gives no price for a solicitor or tax adviser to assess inheritance tax.
If this goes wrong, the estate can report the wrong taxable value or miss a relief and the personal representatives remain responsible for the consequences.
What to actually do
Hand it to a person
The route this page recommends
Someone with a licence or accountable authority has to sign this before it counts.
Use a tool built for this
Second choiceDo it yourself
The distant thirdA chat interface gets you a draft, but you cannot verify it yourself. That is the catch.
How to actually do it
- Open the relevant inheritance tax pages on GOV.UK and create a folder containing the will, estate accounts, property valuations, investment statements, bank statements, debt records, gift records and any trust or insurance documents.
- Make a plain inventory of every asset and debt, recording the owner's name, ownership share, estimated value at the date of death, supporting document and any uncertainty.
- Record gifts and other transfers made before death, including dates, recipients, amounts, assets transferred and any documents showing the purpose or conditions of the transfer.
- Paste the inventory, family details, will extracts and relevant document text into the prompt, removing unnecessary personal identifiers and labelling unknown facts as unknown.
- Ask the chatbot to produce the provisional table, missing-information list, assumptions and GOV.UK links requested in the prompt, then compare every figure and ownership detail in its output with the source documents.
- Send the checked inventory and the chatbot's list of uncertainties to a solicitor or chartered tax adviser before deciding whether an inheritance tax return or payment is required.
Prompt
I need a provisional UK inheritance tax information check, not a final conclusion or a filing decision. Use only the facts and documents I provide, state every assumption, identify missing information, and do not invent figures or legal rules. Organise the assessment under: assets and their open-market values, debts and allowable liabilities, gifts and other transfers before death, jointly owned assets, life policies and pensions, trusts, spouse or civil partner transfers, charitable gifts, business or agricultural assets, the deceased person's UK residence and domicile, and any available nil-rate or residence-related allowances. Explain which items may need specialist valuation or legal analysis. Show the calculation in a clear table, distinguish facts from assumptions, and link each relevant point to current GOV.UK guidance. If the facts are incomplete or the treatment is uncertain, say that the result cannot be determined. Do not tell me that inheritance tax is definitely due or definitely not due. Here are the facts and documents: [paste facts, values, dates, ownership details and document extracts here].
Open it prefilled in ChatGPT or Claude, or copy it into Gemini, which takes no prefill link.
What it gets wrong
- It cannot establish the complete estate from a partial set of papers, especially where assets, gifts, trusts or insurance arrangements are missing.
- It cannot reliably decide whether a relief or allowance applies to unusual property, business, agricultural or family arrangements.
- It cannot replace a formal valuation of property, shares, businesses or other difficult assets.
- It cannot take responsibility for the inheritance tax return, payment or disclosures made by the personal representatives.
- It cannot turn an uncertain family or ownership history into a legally reliable conclusion.
What makes this a NO: legal accountability, regulated advice and verification cost.
How we scored this
Five axes, each scored nought to two by hand: ten means AI carries the task cleanly, and the thresholds that turn a total into YES, PARTLY or NO are published in the methodology. Each axis name links to its definition.
| Axis | Score (0–2) |
|---|---|
| Output | 1 |
| Inputs | 1 |
| Verification | 0 |
| Liability | 0 |
| Effort delta | 1 |
| Total | 3 / 10 |
The methodology and its thresholds are published in full.
FAQ
- Can ChatGPT calculate inheritance tax in the UK?
- It can organise the figures and produce a provisional calculation from information you supply. It can miss gifts, trusts, reliefs, ownership issues and valuation rules, so the result is not professional advice and should not be used as the final estate assessment.
- How do I know if inheritance tax is due on an estate?
- You need a complete picture of the estate, including assets, debts, gifts, ownership, the will and any relevant reliefs or allowances, then compare the position with current HMRC rules. A solicitor or chartered tax adviser should handle a serious or uncertain case.
- Can AI work out inheritance tax from a will?
- AI can extract names, gifts and instructions from a will and list questions for the personal representatives. A will alone does not show the full estate value or the tax treatment of gifts, trusts, jointly owned assets and reliefs.
- Do I need a solicitor for inheritance tax?
- You should use a solicitor or chartered tax adviser where the estate includes property, business or agricultural assets, trusts, substantial gifts, disputed ownership or uncertain valuations. The personal representatives remain responsible for the information given to HMRC even if AI helped prepare it.
Nearby answers
Assessed by gpt-5.6-luna (gpt-5.6-luna) on 2026-08-13, second-checked by an independent model. Wrong somewhere? Email [email protected] and it gets re-checked.
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