When Is Your Own, Not Your Own?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2466361/Councils-spy-parents-sign-house-children-Blitz-families-avoid-care-home-fees.html

Surely when it is your own property you should be able to do with it as you like?

What next will councils check up on any valuable items such as paintings jewellery etc that one gives over to their children?

[friedgreentomato]

If it is a sign over to avoid care fees then yes it should be avoided!

There are also potential tax implication if this is the case.

[Prudie]

I thought the tax man already checks up on gifts of valuable items. Personally I think the government should spend far more on care for the elderly rather than handing it out to young people who don't work.

[Sqad]

AOG.......I am in complete disagreement with you.

Why should I, pay my taxes to support householders that want to sign over their home so that their children get their inheritance and I and many other taxpayers pay for the parents retirement?

[jno]

I thought people already did this to avoid death duties? Perhaps that was only in the past.

[woofgang]

The rules as they stand are clear. Benefits are designed to support people who have no resource of their own.

[LazyGun]

The concern comes down to tax avoidance, surely? Do you support the notion that people should legally be allowed to avoid inheritance tax by the creative gifting of their assets, AoG?

[friedgreentomato]

Lazygun they are not just avoiding taxes by doing this they are avoiding paying nursing home fees.

[bazwillrun]

A decent financial advisor will tell you of far better ways all legal, to "sign over" a property that the stasi gestapo councils cant get from you and force the sale of.

[friedgreentomato]

So you agree with someone off loading their home to avoid care home fees Bazz

[bazwillrun]

@Lazy

This is the same as the companies using legal methods to avoid tax, they didnt make the rules theyre just taking advantage of them.

the same here, if its legal to sign over a propertry then fine, as to the morality, you can argue that until kingdom come or the laws change

[bazwillrun]

"So you agree with someone off loading their home to avoid care home fees Bazz "

if its legal yes, rules is rules !

[Gromit]

AOG

I thought you were against benefit scams

That ia all this is, a scam.

Councils, us council tax payers, will fund care for people who cannot afford it. These people are deliberately making themselves poor by giving away their property.
Instead of bleating you should be campaigning and lobbying your MPsto make care a universal, none means tested benefit. Except that does sound like a very socialist idea, and very expensive.

[LazyGun]

That is surely the point of the whole article, though, isn't it? I misspoke wrt to inheritance tax, FGT - I meant creative gifting to divest oneself of an asset that would be factored into any care home fees and state/local council financial assistance. It is a similar principle though.

Not sure the law does allow it though, does it? Hence the power to track assets and see what has become of them. I understand that if a loophole exists, people will use it, but by and large I approve of measures that close loopholes.

[mikey4444]

Morning Sqad...bang on the button with this one. An inheritance isn't compulsory. These people are just avoiding tax and scrounging off the state.

[Sqad]

mikey....good morning.......you put it in a more succinct way;-)

[bazwillrun]

"These people are just avoiding tax"

which unless I and many others are wrong is not illegal

surely anybody in the right state of mind will do whatever they can to limit their tax liabilites

[woofgang]

indeed we will baz but if its agin the rule and we are caught thats not anybody's fault but our own and i don't think its right to criticise councils who enforce the rules to save the rest of us money.

[Prudie]

This isn't specifically about tax though, it's about often very ordinary people who have to sell up their homes and eat through their savings to pay exorbitant care home fees. Legally I thought you can gift your home over but must then live independently for a minimum 7 years?

[Gromit]

// "These people are just avoiding tax"

which unless I and many others are wrong is not illegal //

What illegal is claiming £hundreds of thousands of pounds in benefits they are not entitled to. I had assumed you were against ALL benefit scroungers Baz?

[bazwillrun]

Its either legal or illegal...make your mind up

if its legal i dont get what some are bleating about, the moral aspect is another argument entirely.

if people get benefits legally then i have no problem, if illegaly, yes then i'm against

"I had assumed you were against ALL benefit scroungers Baz? "

nope only certain people and that definitely includes all foreign claimantslegal or otherwise that have never paid into the systemand and only came here because of the benefits...but thats for another post on another day isnt it