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The value changed over time and the scope of estate duty was extended. By 1857 estates worth over £20 were taxable but duty was rarely collected on estates valued under £1500. Death duties were introduced in 1894, and for the next century were particularly effective in destroying large estates. Estate duty was replaced in 1975 by Capital Transfer Tax, which was replaced by '''Inheritance Tax''' (IHT) in 1986 . Partly due to the simple and widely-used methods which are available to Avoid it, Inheritance Tax is a small, but by no means insignificant, revenue generator for the UK government, raising around £2,000,000,000 in 2001 . For the 6 April 2006 to 5 April 2007 Tax Year , the IHT rate is 40% on the value, at death, of an individual's tax estate over £285,000. This figure is known as the nil rate band, and rises annually. The tax estate includes: # all of the Deceased 's assets, whether Real Estate or Personal Estate , and includes even small-value items such as the contents of his or her home; # any gifts made in the seven years before death; # some assets which were not owned by the Deceased but which are affected by the death (the most common example is a Life Interest in a Trust , technically known as an Interest-in-possession ); # gifts with reservation of benefit (explained below). There is also a charge on "lifetime chargeable transfers" into certain trusts (and a recalculation of those charges if the giver dies within seven years), and trusts themselves have an inheritance tax regime. See Taxation Of Trusts (United Kingdom) . There are deductions for: # all assets left to a spouse; # all assets left to a charity; # some political donations; # some business assets (under Business Property Relief or "BPR") # some farmland (under Agricultural Property Relief or "APR") In order to Avoid IHT, many people in the IHT bracket practice some or all of the following Avoidance measures:
A person who has a tax estate less than the nil rate band may consider himself or herself outside the IHT bracket. However a couple with estates of less than ''double'' the nil rate band cannot consider themselves outside the IHT bracket unless they have taken specific action to ensure they use both nil rate bands. If they do the natural thing - the first of them to die leaving everything to the survivor - then they have effectively wasted that first nil rate band. The survivor will die owning everything, with only his or her ''one'' nil rate band to set against it. The most common means of ensuring that both nil rate bands are used is called a nil band discretionary trust. This is an arrangement in both wills which says that whoever is the first to die leaves their nil band to a Discretionary Trust for the family, and not to the survivor. The survivor can still benefit from those assets if needed, but they are not part of that survivor's tax estate. For the above to work it is important that each partner has sufficient assets in their own name to cover the nil-band. If assets are all in one name, or in Joint names, the arrangement may not work. This is often described, slightly inaccurately, as "equalisation". A gift is not valid for IHT purposes if the giver retains any benefit from it. There are quite complex and rigid rules which establish whether the giver has retained a benefit, and where there is a retention of benefit all IHT advantages from the gift are effectively lost. The 2004 Finance Act introduced an Income Tax regime known as Pre-owned Asset Tax which aims to reduce the use of common methods of IHT avoidance. External links |
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