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Do you know how much Inheritance Tax (IHT) would be payable on your Estate?
Print the IHT Calculation Request, complete it and post it to us with details of your Will and we will contact you to agree a fee for calculating the potential liability.
For deaths after 5 April 2003, tax is payable at 40% on the amount by which "gross cumulative transfers" exceed £255,000.
Gross cumulative transfers include the Estate at date of death and many gifts which have been made within the last 7 years and possibly chargeable transfers in the last 14 years.
Provided the appropriate conditions are satisfied, there are reliefs for certain Business and Agricultural assets.
This is a complicated subject and these notes are only a brief outline, but every individual can give away £3,000 per year, and gifts on marriage - it soon adds up. Form D3a and Notes D3 are useful if you want to make gifts out of income. Are you aware of and using the exemptions?
Talk to us about structuring your investments so that some of your wealth is no longer part of your estate, possibly with immediate effect, possibly after as little as two years, and almost certainly after 7 years. There are too many possible arrangements to detail here.
Post death planning
Tax planning will not seem important and it is emotionally difficult immediately following the death of a loved one, but it is possibly if the beneficiaries effect a Deed of Variation within 2 years of death in respect of property left by Intestacy, by Will, or by Survivorship. Where both spouses die in quick succession it is possible for the beneficiaries of the second death to vary the Will of the first to die.
See also Inheritance Tax Plan, Inheritance Tax Trap, Interest in Possession, Joint Ownership, Giving
Reminder - disclaimer applies. Please feedback your comments. This page was last modified 14 September 2004.