The record your executor will need for HMRC.
Gifts made in the seven years before a death are a question on the estate paperwork, and the person answering it will not be you. Writing each one down as you go takes two minutes. Reconstructing it afterwards takes weeks.
This is general information about getting organised, not tax or financial advice — speak to a regulated adviser.
Why the record exists
Somebody has to answer for gifts you have already forgotten
They can only report what they can find.
The seven-year record is a form, not a theory
When someone dies, the people administering the estate have to tell HMRC about gifts made in the seven years before the death. That is an administrative fact about the paperwork, and it applies whether or not any tax turns out to be due. What it means for any particular gift is a question for a regulated adviser, not for us.
A bank statement is not a record
This is where most people are caught out. A statement shows that money left an account on a Tuesday. The schedule asks who received it, what it actually was, the exact date, what it was worth at the time, and whether you kept any benefit from it. None of that is on the statement, and none of it is easy to reconstruct once the only person who knew is gone.
And most estates pay nothing
Inheritance tax affects only around 4.6% of deaths (HMRC) — most estates pay no inheritance tax at all. Keeping a gift record is not a bet that yours will be one of them. It is so that whoever fills in the form can answer the questions truthfully and quickly, rather than guessing and then having to explain the guess.
The number the paperwork is measured against
The nil-rate band is £325,000, frozen until at least April 2031
That is a real date rather than a manufactured one, and it matters here for one reason only: it is the figure the estate paperwork is measured against, and the gifts schedule feeds into that measurement. It is not a reason to do anything different with your money. For that, speak to a regulated adviser.
What the form asks for
Six answers, per gift
HMRC’s gifts schedule is not complicated. It is just specific, and specific is what memory is worst at.
The exact date
The day, not the month. It is the field people cannot reconstruct afterwards, and it is the one everything else hangs off.
Who received it
Their full name and their relationship to you. “My daughter” is not enough on a form somebody else has to stand behind.
What it actually was
Cash, shares, a property, a vehicle, an interest in a business, a transfer into a trust. Specific enough to identify the thing without you in the room.
What it was worth at the time
The value on the day it was given, not what it is worth now. For anything other than cash that usually means a valuation — so note how the figure was arrived at, and by whom.
Whether you kept any benefit from it
The schedule asks whether you carried on using or benefiting from what you gave away — still living in the house, still driving the car. Answer it plainly in your own record so nobody has to work it out later.
Whether anything was claimed at the time
If an exemption or a relief was claimed, note which one and who advised it. Your executor needs to know it was considered. Whether it applies is a question for a regulated adviser.
What to keep
Six things per gift, and a note of where they live
You are not building an archive. You are making one form answerable.
- The transfer or cheque record, with the date visible on it.
- A short note in your own words: who, what, when, and why. Two lines is plenty.
- Any valuation or written estimate, for anything that is not cash.
- The deed or transfer document for property, shares, or a trust.
- The name and number of any solicitor or adviser involved, so your executor can ring them.
- And a note of where all of that is kept. A record nobody can find helps nobody.
What to write down
Which gifts are worth recording
Use your judgement. The test is whether a stranger could reconstruct it.
- Anything substantial: money, property, shares, a vehicle, an interest in a business, a transfer into a trust.
- Anything a stranger could not piece together from your bank statements alone.
- Anything you would struggle to date accurately five years from now.
- Anything where you kept some use of the thing you gave away.
- Ordinary family generosity — birthdays, Christmas, a hand with the shopping — is not what this is for.
Free during the open beta
Gift records are free while Beqst is in beta
Beqst is in open beta and free while we finish building it, gift records included. After the beta, advanced gift tracking (taper relief and exemptions) is planned for the Lifetime plan. Nothing described here sits behind a payment today.
Free checklist
Start with the checklist
Add your email and we will send it over — a clean PDF you can print or fill in, with room for the record described above. Free, and it stays free. We will send occasional, genuinely useful updates too (no spam, unsubscribe anytime).
Kept safe
A gift record is family business
Who received what, and when, is not something you want loose in a spreadsheet. If you keep it in Beqst, passwords and other selected high-risk details are encrypted with AES-256-GCM before they are stored, and you decide exactly what your executor can see after you die.
Related reading
The paperwork this record feeds into
Plain-English guides, with the sources named.
Gift records, answered plainly
This is general information about getting organised, not tax or financial advice — speak to a regulated adviser.