Providing documentation on probate etc

Hi all. Thanks for the great forum, haven't used it in a while but good to see it still going.

My parents are preparing theirs wills and I am executor. My father is 'detail-oriented' and has been prepping lots of documents and spreadsheets

Anyway, they have 3 children, and there has been a good amount of gifts over the years towards house purchases.
He is trying to document it all so that it is easier for me when the time comes.

In my case I would have received a gift to help with a house purchase in 1999 and again in 2000 (and sell the first one).
There is only partial documentation for all this and it's driving him mad. I was very young and didn't keep alot of documentation either.

He was pushing for me to go back to builders, solicitors, and mortgage companies to get as much as we could to fill in the blanks, and thereby confirm the gift amounts.
However we just look at the IT38S form and it says:

- for gifts..... inherited after 5th Dec 2001
- you must keep records for 6 years

He is worked up about being challenged about all the transactions and wants documentary proof in place for all of them but has now said if the above 2 points are true them maybe he will just rely on his spreadsheet as-is.

The overall gift situation are:
- Me: 1999 house purchase with gift, house sale, 2000 new house purchase with gift. Mortgage involved in both. Above threshold
- Sibling, 2000 house purchase with gift, Some 2001 gift transaction, not above threshold.
- Sibling, Post 2001 house purchase with gift

So.... we could just put down what we think is the case (we are pretty sure it's accurate and I would be 73k over the gift threshold) and they rely on our word?
Or what circumstances would lead to them wanting documentary proof?


Many thanks.

If there are no records……..

You and your siblings should each commit to drawing up your own lists of previous gifts received and take the stress off your father who seems to be worrying to an unhealthy extent about something that isn't actually any of his business.

He won't give it up and any suggestion to do so is met with "annoyance" that I won't help him out. A lot of it!
We are all individually providing what docs we can but there is a lot missing. He had a good portion of it centrally documented.

Anyway those two points piqued his interest and I would just like experience from people on how it works as he is starting to think we don't need to provide info but has this idea that Revenue etc are on stuff like hawks and we need backup documentary evidence for everything.

It's a self-assessment system and in the handful of cases I have dealt with where Revenue have enquired into past gifts within families, they dealt with them fairly and sensitively. There was absolutely neither pressure nor interrogations put on any of the family members be they donors or recipients.

Taking a wider view, parent is seeking to have the same level of, lets be charitable & say 'organisation', after their death as they have had during their lifetime.

Documentation in addition to the wills is very useful - but stressing everyone else out is not.

Bank accounts, insurance, shares, passwords to laptop, email, social media, are all useful things to include in the envelope. As well as a personal letter to thank the executor for their work.

After that, tape it closed and leave it be - you'll be dead and its up to your exec / family to take care of things.

@T McGibney: Thanks
@DannyBoyD: Yes all of that is in the mix it's just hard to convince that things are not so strict. In the end they are just trying to be prepared and helpful.

So if there is partial documentation, but having more documentation could help, could the Revenue request that I go back to the original solicitors, mortgage companies etc to get me to fill in the blanks? or can they not ask this because it is more than 6 years ago?