2011 (173 articles)

: 09 November 2011; Categories: Uncategorized

If you inherit a property from your spouse or civil partner, you’re an exempt beneficiary and you normally won’t owe Inheritance Tax as long as you’re domiciled in the UK.

: 09 November 2011; Categories: Uncategorized

Responsibility for paying Inheritance Tax

To arrive at the amount payable when valuing a deceased person’s estate, you need to include assets (property, possessions and money) they owned at their death and certain assets they gave away during the seven years before they died. The valuation must accurately reflect what those assets would reasonably receive in the open market at the date of death.

: 09 November 2011; Categories: Uncategorized

Transferring assets can seriously improve your wealth

Current rules mean that the survivor of a marriage or civil partnership can benefit from up to double the Inheritance Tax threshold – 650,000 in the current tax year, in addition to the entitlement to the full spouse relief.

: 09 November 2011; Categories: Uncategorized

Passing on assets without having to pay Inheritance Tax

Inheritance Tax is the tax that is paid on your estate, chargeable at a current rate of 40 per cent. Broadly speaking, this is a tax on everything you own at the time of your death, less what you owe. It’s also sometimes payable on assets you may have given away during your lifetime. Assets include property, possessions, money and investments. One thing is certain, careful planning is required to protect your wealth from a potential Inheritance Tax liability.

: 09 November 2011; Categories: Uncategorized

Ensure you don’t pay more tax than is necessary

There are now three main types of trusts.

: 09 November 2011; Categories: Uncategorized

Helping you control and protect family assets

A trust is a legal arrangement where one or more trustees are made legally responsible for assets. The assets – such as land, money, buildings, shares or even antiques – are placed in trust for the benefit of one or more beneficiaries.

: 09 November 2011; Categories: Uncategorized

Using a trust to pass assets to beneficiaries

Trusts may incur an Inheritance Tax charge when assets are transferred into or out of them or when they reach a ten-year anniversary. The person who puts assets into a trust is known as a settlor. A transfer of assets into a trust can include property, land or cash in the form of:

: 09 November 2011; Categories: Uncategorized

Getting the full benefit of a gift to the total exclusion of the donor

A gift with reservation is a gift that is not fully given away. Where gifts with reservation were made on or after 18 March 1986, you can include the assets as part of your estate but there is no seven year limit as there is for outright gifts. A gift may begin as a gift with reservation but some time later the reservation may cease.

: 09 November 2011; Categories: Uncategorized

Don’t leave your heirs embroiled in years of legal feuding

If you leave everything to your husband, wife or civil partner, in this instance there usually won’t be any Inheritance Tax to pay because a husband, wife or civil partner counts as an exempt beneficiary. But bear in mind that their estate will be worth more when they die, so more Inheritance Tax may have to be paid then.