Many of the IHT questions asked in the forum get the response eg: "You have to contact Contact IHT..." so in most cases, even though the question seems simple with a binary answer, the answer is seldom given here. This is very unhelpful. So, some questions: 0: is Admin XX simply a 'BOT' with primitive AI capabilities ? and 1: what is the best IHT phone number to call that will be answered by a human within say 15mins ? What is the best time of day / day of week to call ? and 2: can you ask for a written / eMailed transcript of a call immediately at the end of a call (assuming calls are recorded) ? and 3: can you eMail HMRC IHT with 'general questions' that do not contain identifying information so that you get a response that you can keep on record and possibly share here ? I have seen the HMRC eMail guidance which requires you to write-in to authorise eMail comms but that appears to relate to an active IHT case rather than queries pre-IHT. It's ridiculous that 'JoePublic / Ordinary Working People' have to go to a costly solicitor or to a 'specialist' for answers. Admin XX -> Please don't say contact IHT ;-) for an answer to this, the most general of queries. Thank you.