inheritance tax

Inheritance tax is a charge levied on your ‘estate’. Broadly speaking it is a tax levied on the value of everything you own at the time of your death, minus what you owe. It is also sometimes paid on the value of assets you have given away during your lifetime – assets such as property, investments, money and possessions.

Not everyone pays inheritance tax on death, it only applies to assets over a set amount, £300,000 in 2007-8 and £312,000 for 2008/9. It is also possible to use both nil rate bands for married couples and civil partnerships.

Despite this, a vast number of people in the UK will be subjected to inheritance tax due to the vast increase in house prices over the last decade. Most people are also unaware of their annual allowances and ability to make gifts to help mitigate inheritance tax.

Whilst inheritance tax has been declared a ‘voluntary levy’ in the past, which is perhaps slightly unfair, it is clear that most people are unaware of the ways to help mitigate the amount of tax payable when they die. Many people would be very concerned to find that they are leaving large sums of money to the tax man, when it may be possible to leave more to the people they leave behind.

Inheritance tax is a very complicated area of advice, and we find that each client is different. At Leedhams we are well qualified to advise on a variety of different solutions to suit your individual circumstances. We take the time to clearly describe how the tax works, the implications to you of making no provision and the advantages and disadvantages of various different options. The first port of call is to make a tax efficient will. Following that, we like to work alongside your solicitor and/or accountant to structure your inheritance tax solution.

Please remember, the tax charge levied on death is 40% of the amount above the nil rate band, if you do nothing, your estate may pay a higher rate in death than you paid in your lifetime.