Inheritance
Tax
Along with capital
gains tax, inheritance tax (IHT) is often referred to as a voluntary
tax. With careful planning,
it is often possible to mitigate or totally remove this tax cost.
When advising you in this respect, we shall also fully explain
to you the potential implications of such planning on your access
to income and capital during your later years.
Before commencing any detailed IHT review or planning, it is important
to determine what your overall IHT strategy is, which will usually fall into one of the following:
- Maintain wealth in the form most convenient to you and do not worry about IHT,
- Give everything away (except perhaps the nil rate band) and survive for 7 years,
- Take out life insurance to fund the expected IHT liability,
- Follow a balanced approach, combining re-structuring of affairs to maximise eligibility to IHT reliefs, gifting assets to the next generation that do not produce an income and taking out life cover for the residual IHT liability.
Depending on the circumstances, their are numerous
ways to mitigate this tax:
- Creating life time trusts,
- Making life time gifts of chargeable assets and surviving
7 years,
- Tax efficient writing of Wills,
- Making a post death deed of family arrangement,
- Re-structuring wealth into assets that will be eligible for Business Property
Relief and Agricultural Property Relief,
- Re-structuring borrowings, to make sure they are not secured on assets which already attract generous IHT reliefs.
The most popular inheritance tax service we offer
is valuing your current estate, before reviewing the
intestacy rules and your current Will, then calculating your
current inheritance tax exposure. We shall then discuss your options
for restructuring your affairs and rewriting your Will, to reduce
this tax. We shall also discuss with you whether you should take
out life cover, to insure against the residual liability.
Most people consider inheritance tax as an unwelcome
reduction in the inheritance passed on to the next generation.
As well as seeking to reduce this tax, our tax technicians, whom
include ex tax inspectors in number, will prepare all of the necessary
paperwork and communicate with your Solicitor, so that you have
peace of mind that your final tax affairs will be dealt with in
a professional manner that you have come to expect.
Practical Examples of our Inheritance Tax Expertise
- Including nil rate band discretionary trust clauses in
the Wills of both spouses,
- Holding assets upon death, and for at least the two
previous years, which are entitled to the generous 100%
Business Property Relief.
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