EstateTally

About EstateTally

EstateTally is software that helps executors in England and Wales prepare their own Inheritance Tax account — the IHT400 and its schedules — from the papers they already have. It is made by Northpine Labs LLC, an independent software company based in the United States.

What we are, and what we are not

  • We are a software company. We are not a law firm or an accountancy firm, and we are not regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority or any other legal or accountancy regulator.
  • We are not affiliated with HMRC or any part of government. HMRC’s forms are free on GOV.UK, and you can fill them in without us.
  • We do not give legal, tax or financial advice. The explanations in the software and in our guides describe the rules in general, with a reference to the law or to HMRC’s manual. Where the law leaves a judgement to the executor — for example whether regular gifts were “normal expenditure out of income” — we set out the conditions and you decide.

We do not apply for probate

Preparing the papers for a grant of probate or letters of administration is a “reserved legal activity” under the Legal Services Act 2007: only authorised professionals may do it for a fee, while people dealing with an estate themselves may do it without charge. EstateTally stays outside it. We do not prepare or submit probate applications (forms PA1P and PA1A or the online application), we do not contact HMRC or the probate registry for you, and we do not act as your agent.

The IHT400 remains your account. You check every value and every claim, sign the declaration and send it to HMRC yourself. When HMRC sends its code, you apply for probate yourself on GOV.UK.

How the software works out the figures

  • Rules with references. Every figure that the law or HMRC changes — the nil rate bands, rates, exemptions, interest rates and dates — sits in one dated table with its source. Each calculation step names the section of the Inheritance Tax Act 1984 or the page of HMRC’s Inheritance Tax Manual it follows. The rules in use today are version 2026-10-05.1, checked on 5 October 2026.
  • Tested. Over 100 automated tests check the calculations — the nil rate band and its transfer, the residence nil rate band and its taper, the 7-year rule and taper relief, gifts out of income, the 36% rate, instalments and interest — including against HMRC’s own worked examples.
  • HMRC’s own forms, box by box. We fill in the current editions of HMRC’s forms from GOV.UK without changing them. Every box that HMRC’s form would work out itself is calculated and checked against the form’s own arithmetic. A box-by-box map shows where each figure came from.
  • Documents read by AI, checked by you. An AI model from Anthropic reads the pages of your documents after account and National Insurance numbers have been painted out, and suggests lines for the inventory. Each suggestion is shown next to the part of the page it came from; anything it is unsure about is flagged for you to check.
  • Checked before you send. About 50 checks look for common mistakes — totals that do not add up, a late spouse’s unused allowances not claimed, a residence nil rate band claimed with no direct descendants, gifts out of income above the spare income, costs after the death entered as debts, interest that has started — and explain the rule behind each one.
  • Kept up to date. When thresholds, rates or forms change, we update the rules and say what changed on the rule changes page.

The estates we can help with

EstateTally covers estates in England and Wales of people who died on or after 1 January 2022 and were long-term UK residents. It does not cover Scotland or Northern Ireland, business or agricultural relief, unlisted shares, property abroad other than a simple bank account, trusts, or gifts with reservation of benefit. The free check tells you if an estate is outside what we cover before you pay anything, so that you can get professional help instead.

How we handle your information

Account numbers, sort codes and National Insurance numbers are painted out of your documents before they are stored or read. Pages are encrypted and deleted 7 days after you first download your pack; the inventory is kept for 90 days. Statistics run without cookies unless you allow them, and never include amounts, names or dates. The full details are in the privacy notice.

Contact

E-mail [email protected] or use the contact form. If something in a form looks wrong, please report it there — we correct the rules and tell you when it is fixed.

Software to help you prepare your own IHT400. Not legal or tax advice. We do not apply for probate. Not affiliated with HMRC.