Inheritance

Well, this should start an interesting 'debate'!!

Not a lot to be said though is there? Is a person entitled to do what they like with their own, presumably earned, money? I say Yes. End of debate. If a limit is to be set, what a h**l of a spending spree well-off Oldies could have - might be just what the Chancellor needs to boost the economy!

Come on Gerry this is another attempt at a wind-up isn't it.

frank could be Bentley 49

But he appears to have opposing views envious that's why I'm Can you imagine Frank not wanting all his pension

Two wind ups = same silly sod.

Inheritance Tax is the means by which a proportion of the money is distributed back to the government - provided people don't use various schemes to avoid paying it.

Can you give your reasons for that statement bently

Eloethan

You don't have to use schemes to get around inheritance tax.
Money can get lost by parents paying bills for their children eg holidays,
restaurant bills, cars etc during their life time.
It would be difficult to check these things out.

Frank

bentley49

What you are saying is ridiculous.
What incentive is there going to be for people to save etc if they know the money can not be passed on to their offspring?.

Frank

Of course it's ridiculous. He's just another wind-up merchant.

I recon someone is using a very big wooden spoon.

Are you mad bentley49?, or possibly you are Ivanhoe come back under another name! If you are serious, a complete load of rubbish, I like most want my estate to go to my children, who are finding it a lot harder today than my generation did. I intend to offload money to my children at a later stage, when they are more money savvy to avoid as much Inheritance Tax as possible. Both my husband and I were lucky enough to have inherited money from both sides of our respective families who worked damn hard, as well as what we have accrued ourselves. I regard myself as a custodian of some of this money to help future generations because everything is much more of a struggle now.

I don't blame you bananas.
We have some people in our family with strange ideas on inheritance.
My mother in law outlived my wife and she passed away when my 2 daughters were 17 and 18.
Her estate was willed to my 2 daughters.
Some of my mother in laws relatives came around saying they were going to contest the will saying older more responsible blood relatives should have the money.
They even said it is dangerous putting 2 young ladies in charge of a substantial amount of money and they would get in to things like drugs.
They used some of the money to make their life a bit more comfortable at university. When they graduated they used the rest to buy a semi detached house each.
I never saw any signs of them buying drugs.

Frank

Frank, good tips there about getting round IT. Ta!

Bentley is simply a wind-up merchant. Extreme suggestions are best ignored.

As I understand it, if a single person has assets below £325,000, no Inheritance Tax is payable. Married people or people with a civil partnership need to have assets over £650,000 before IT is payable.

I certainly want to leave money to my children and grandchildren but I don't think it's unreasonable for Inheritance Tax to be payable above those amounts - it still leaves a substantial inheritance "pot". Not all young people are fortunate enough to have money left to them and I think it's right that some of the money goes back to the government for re-distribution. If it doesn't, some families just accrue more and more wealth by virtue of the hard work of previous generations, rather than their own hard work.

As Frank says, if money/shares, pushed total assets above those limits, I suppose they could be gifted to children before death. It must be tempting to do that though some might think it unethical. I imagine the tax people would be interested in large amounts of money being disposed of prior to death.

Is it still possible to gift £3,500 tax free to family? I think it is important to keep a record of such transactions eg to whom ,when and in which tax year.this made it possible to help DD with a deposit for a house without her having to declare it as tax. I think it is possible to do it for three years retrospectively.

Remaking my will recently, the solicitor started to tell me about how much I could give away each year to ensure I don't have to pay Inheritance Tax - told her it wouldn't be a problem - I intend to spend it all . I would add I don't have children whatever is left when I am gone goes to nieces and nephews

I'm not sure exactly what the rules are but I think you can gift £1,000 a year to your children - I don't know if that's each child. No doubt someone on GN knows the actual rules.

Bet Frank does!

From the Saga website:

'Briefly, you can give away £3,000 a year without incurring any tax liability if you were to die soon after making the gift (twice that if you didn’t give away £3,000 in the previous year), and you can give certain gifts on the marriage of children, grandchildren and friends. You can give any number of small gifts up to £250, but you can’t give two small gifts of £250 to the same person or combine different categories of gift – e.g. give someone £3,250. Most other one-off gifts will become what is known as “potentially exempt transfers”, meaning that if you live for seven years after making the gift there is no tax to pay, but if you don’t live that long there may be tax to pay on a sliding scale.'

Should have said that if you aren't going to be subject to Inheritance Tax it doesn't matter how much of your money you give away, unless you're trying to avoid paying care fees.