By Rocco Clayfield, Founder & Director, GoldPaid Ltd · Published 6 August 2026
Before anything else
Which form, and whether you need one at all
Not every estate files an IHT400. For deaths on or after 1 January 2022 most estates with no Inheritance Tax to pay report the value through the probate application itself rather than on a separate form, the old IHT205 having been withdrawn for those deaths. The full IHT400 account, with its schedules, is for estates that need to give HMRC the detail: where tax is due, where the estate is not an excepted estate, or where a claim or election has to be made.
Where an IHT400 is filed, jewellery goes on schedule IHT407, household and personal goods. That schedule also covers vehicles, boats, antiques, works of art and collections, and it explicitly does not cover anything the deceased owned jointly with someone else, which belongs on schedule IHT404 instead. A wedding ring owned outright is IHT407; a canteen of silver held jointly with a surviving spouse is IHT404.
The £1,500 line, exactly as HMRC draws it
Box 1 of IHT407 is the jewellery box, and its instruction is one sentence: enter details of any individual items of jewellery valued at £1,500 or more, and if you have a professional valuation, enclose a copy. The columns you complete for each such item are a description, the open market value at the date of death, and, if the item has already been sold, the date of the sale and the gross sale proceeds.
The important word is individual. The threshold applies to a single item, not to the jewellery box as a whole. A drawer holding a 9ct wedding band, a broken curb chain, four odd earrings and a silver charm bracelet might total several hundred pounds and still contain nothing that needs listing separately. It goes into the general household and personal goods total further down the form instead.
What crosses the line in an ordinary estate is fairly predictable: a diamond solitaire, a branded watch, a signed piece, a heavy 22ct set, a piece the deceased had insured separately. If a previous insurance schedule exists, look at it, then note carefully that an insurance figure is not the figure HMRC wants, which is the next section.
What open market value means, and what it is not
Open market value is what the item would have fetched if it had been sold on the open market on the date of death. Gov.uk puts it about as plainly as it can be put: to value household and personal items, work out how much you would have got if you had sold them, and you can search for similar items on online marketplaces to help. It is a realisation figure, not an aspiration.
Three figures get mistaken for it, and all three are wrong for this purpose.
| Figure | What it actually is | Why it is not open market value |
|---|---|---|
| Insurance replacement value | What a jeweller would charge to replace the item new, or with an equivalent | Typically far higher than a resale figure. Using it inflates the estate and the tax. |
| Original purchase price | What was paid, often decades ago | Bears no relation to the market on the date of death, in either direction. |
| Retail ticket price in a shop window | A dealer’s asking price including their margin and overheads | Nobody selling an item receives the retail price for it. |
For scrap and broken gold, this cuts a knot that worries a lot of executors. The open market value of a broken 9ct chain is close to what a metal buyer will pay for it, because that is genuinely the market for a broken 9ct chain. Nobody is buying it to wear. Recording it honestly at its metal value is accurate, not pessimistic, and a documented assay showing the purity, the weight and the rate used is a clean evidence trail for exactly that figure.
The reverse also applies. Where a piece has resale life in it as jewellery, a wearable 18ct eternity ring, a good watch, a piece with a name on it, its open market value is what a second-hand buyer would pay, which is more than the metal alone. Writing such a piece into the accounts at scrap value understates the estate. Our guide to probate jewellery valuation sets out when a SoFA or RICS valuer is the right call.
If items have already been sold
The form anticipates this. Alongside the open market value at the date of death, box 1 asks for the date of sale and the gross sale proceeds for anything that has since been sold. Both numbers go on: HMRC is interested in the date-of-death value for the tax calculation and in the sale proceeds as a cross-check on it.
HMRC’s internal Inheritance Tax manual is explicit that where estate items are sold for less than market value, the full open market value still goes on the IHT407. A discounted or family sale does not reduce the reported figure. If the sale figure and the date-of-death figure differ substantially, the sensible move is to say why in the covering correspondence rather than leave HMRC to wonder, movements in the gold price between the date of death and the date of sale are a perfectly ordinary explanation, and a dated valuation evidences it.
A practical method for a jewellery box
- Photograph everything, laid out, with hallmarks visible where you can get them.
- Separate anything that could conceivably be worth £1,500 on its own: stones, branded watches, signed pieces, heavy high-carat items.
- For that separated group, obtain a professional valuation from a SoFA or RICS valuer and enclose a copy with the form.
- For the remainder, obtain a written, itemised assay showing the purity, weight and rate used, run against the rate on the date of death rather than today’s.
- Enter the qualifying individual items in box 1, and the remainder in the general household and personal goods total.
- Keep every valuation, photograph and receipt with the estate file.
What HMRC looks at when it queries an IHT407
HMRC’s own guidance to its investigators is a useful window into what draws attention, and none of it is mysterious. It asks whether the figure returned is consistent with the deceased’s circumstances: a large or valuable house with a very small household-goods figure invites a question, as does an occupation that suggests the deceased collected or dealt in valuable items. It also asks where the proceeds of any items sold before death are reflected in the estate.
The lesson for an ordinary executor is not to be defensive, it is to be legible. A modest figure supported by photographs and a dated written valuation is easy to accept. The same figure with nothing behind it is the one that generates correspondence.
Common questions
What is the threshold for listing jewellery individually on IHT407?
Individual items of jewellery valued at £1,500 or more are listed separately, with a professional valuation enclosed if you have one. Items below that are included in the general household and personal goods total. Check the current form at gov.uk, as HMRC revises its forms from time to time.
Do I need a professional valuation for every piece?
No. IHT407 asks you to enclose a professional valuation where you have one, and to give values for individual items or groups of items where you do not. For ordinary household gold and silver, a documented written valuation showing purity, weight and the rate used is a reasonable basis. For anything over the £1,500 line, a SoFA or RICS valuer is the safer route.
Can I use an insurance valuation for probate?
It is the wrong basis. Insurance valuations are usually replacement cost, which is materially higher than open market value and will overstate the estate. Use it as a signal that a piece may be valuable, then get an open-market figure.
What if the jewellery is worth almost nothing?
Enter an honest low figure rather than nil. Costume and plated pieces have little or no metal value and can be described as such; broken and unhallmarked solid pieces still have real value and should not be written off at zero. Both statements are easier to make when you have a written assay behind them.
Does the date-of-death gold price matter?
Yes, for the probate figure. Open market value is measured at the date of death, so a valuation of scrap gold should be run against the rate on that date rather than today’s. Where the estate needs it, GoldPaid applies the historic rate for the stated date in the written valuation.
What is the difference between IHT407 and IHT404?
IHT407 is for household and personal goods the deceased owned outright. Anything owned jointly with someone else goes on IHT404 instead. Jewellery is only rarely jointly owned, but silverware and furniture sometimes are.
Is the probate value the same as what I will be paid if I sell?
Almost never exactly. The probate value is an open-market estimate at a past date; a sale figure is a real offer today, against today’s market. The two are different numbers for different purposes, and the difference is expected rather than suspicious.