IHT417 Form: Foreign Assets — Complete Guide 2026

When you need IHT417

The front page of the form now sets out two tests, and which one applies depends on the date of death:

• Death on or after 6 April 2025: fill in IHT417 if the deceased “was a long-term UK resident when they died and owned assets abroad”. HMRC’s manual (IHTM47001) gives the test: an individual is a long-term UK resident if they were resident in the UK for at least 10 of the 20 tax years immediately before the tax year in which the death falls.
• Death on or before 5 April 2025: the old test — fill it in if the deceased was domiciled, deemed domiciled or formerly domiciled in the UK.

Domicile has not disappeared entirely. It still governs deaths and lifetime transfers before 6 April 2025, some settled property where the settlor died before that date, and the meaning of domicile used in double taxation conventions. But for a death today it is not the question.

Complete IHT417 (and submit it with the IHT400) if the deceased meets the test for their date of death and owned any of the following outside the UK:

• property or land abroad (a holiday home, an inherited family home);
• foreign bank, building society or investment accounts;
• shares in foreign companies, or foreign-held funds;
• an overseas business or partnership interest.

For inheritance tax the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man are not in the UK, so assets there are foreign assets and go on this form. Foreign assets the deceased owned jointly also go here rather than on IHT404, with the joint ownership explained in the additional information boxes of the IHT400 — the reverse of the rule for UK assets. Residence counted over twenty tax years is a matter of record, but it is still worth checking carefully. See our guide to domicile and inheritance tax.

Valuing and reporting foreign assets

• Show the working, not just the sterling figure: the form has three columns — the value in the foreign currency at the date of death, the exchange rate at that date, and the sterling value. The notes say major currencies should generally be converted at the closing mid-point in the ‘Pound Spot Forward against the Pound’ table, and less common ones at the rates in the FT Guide to World Currencies.
• Expenses of administering abroad: section 173 of the Inheritance Tax Act 1984 allows the expense of administering or realising foreign property “which is shown to be attributable to the situation of the property” — capped at 5% of its value. It is not a flat 5% deduction you can simply take: you claim what was actually incurred because the asset was abroad, up to that ceiling.
• Two halves to the form: boxes 1 to 5 are for foreign houses, land, businesses and controlling shareholdings (net total to IHT400 box 97); boxes 6 to 10 are for everything else — foreign bank accounts, cryptoassets and the rest (net total to IHT400 box 98). Box 11 asks whether any of it is distributed under a foreign will.
• Double taxation relief: if the same asset is taxed both abroad and in the UK, relief may be available to avoid being taxed twice.
• Moving money home: once the estate is settled, see transferring inheritance across borders.

Common mistakes

• Assuming foreign assets are outside UK inheritance tax — for a long-term UK resident, worldwide assets are in scope.
• Applying the wrong test for the date of death. For deaths from 6 April 2025 it is long-term UK residence — 10 of the last 20 tax years — not domicile, and nationality has never decided it.
• Using the current exchange rate rather than the date-of-death rate.
• Overlooking double taxation relief and paying more UK tax than necessary.