Inheritance Tax

[terambulan]

Anyone know the thresholds? And percentages claimed by tax man?

[Kleiber]

I'm informed by my Independant Financial Advisor that the individual allowance is at present, �315,000. So, If you're married and your spouse dies & leaves everything to you, you pay nothing (as spouses are exempt from Inheritance Tax anyway, but you must be legally married). Your children can then inherit both yours and your spouse's allowance. So, when you die, and assuming your total estate isn't worth more than �630,000, your offspring don't pay inheritance tax. If it's worth more than that, then the Inland Revenue take a chunk of anything above this figure, but I'm not sure what the percentage is at the moment, as things are changing all the time. Perhaps someone else has a better idea?

[terambulan]

If its considerably more.....ie including businesses & real estate would they have to be sold to meet the tax account

[terambulan]

Suppose it was a financial settlement instead of the businesses etc....how would the tax be then? Assuming the settlement is �ms?

[Barmaid]

Rate is currently 40% over and above the threshold.

Certain business assets attract business property relief so it is often better to retain the business assets rather than a lump sum. Although at least with a lump sum it can be spent/given away. For a complicated scenario such as this, I would be inclined to take proper tax planning advice from a member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners.

[terambulan]

Thnx Barmaid......will search the society on google