Completely clueless about finance

[Ric.ror]

The title just about sums me up. I have no idea about finance whatsoever. I do not know about inheritance tax or capitol gain taxes or anything. My Uncle is elderly and failing and wants to leave me all his money. Where on earth can I get financial help from. I have heard such bad reports about advisors

[PrinceRainie]

You will only be liable to inheritance tax if your uncles estate is worth over �300,000. If it is, then you wil be taxed at 40% of the excess over the �300,000. It can be a hefty tax.
Capital Gains Tax (CGT) is payable upoin disposal of an asset....such as stocks and shares.....some investments....antiques....other properties (but not the one he lives in) etc etc.....

An accountant can provide more in depth advice on CGT, but he/she will have to know exactly what your uncle has in assets.

With regard to Inheritance Tax....if your uncles health is failing now...then it may be already too late to plan for inheritance tax (I wont bore you with the details, but people generally have to survice 7 years for there not to be any inheritance tax after they have gifted some money/assets to you. You may, however want to encourage your uncle to seek advice from a solicitor who may be able to do someting with his will to help mitigate some inheritance tax.
Hope this helps...........

[EverClean]

You can look at planning for IHT and taking out an insurance policy to pay the tax over the next 7 years on a decreasing scale in line with the potential tax liability.

Speak to friends and family about an adviser that they have used and trust by way of a recommendation. There are some fantastic advisers out there and some very poor ones aswell.

[themas]

To leave you his money your uncle must make a will. In it, he will have to appoint executors. It will be their job to deal with inheritance tax (if any) and you will receive the inheritance after the tax has been deducted. [If you are appointed executor you will need to engage a firm of solicitors to get probate & deal with inheritance tax etc., as you have no knowledge of this yourself.]

There is no capital gains tax on the estate of someone who dies. You would only be involved in this tax if you used some of the inheritance to buy assets such as shares & then sold them after their value had increased considerably.