Inheritance Tax Planning Service

Inheritance Tax (IHT)
To quote Benjamin Franklin, “There are only two certainties in life - Death and Taxes.“ Though this quote was made back in the 1700s, it’s undoubtedly as true today as ever it was and Inheritance Tax is the place where these two great certainties collide!

IHT is essentially a progressive tax, that is to say the larger the Estate, the greater the liability to IHT, though many consider IHT to be more of a voluntary levy. Indeed, the Labour politician Roy Jenkins in 1986 famously said “Inheritance Tax, is broadly speaking a voluntary levy paid by those who distrust their Heirs more than they dislike the Inland Revenue.” Whilst this may be a slight exaggeration, there is certainly no need to pay more IHT than you absolutely have too and with the benefit of careful planning IHT can certainly be reduced or mitigated completely.

How Does Inheritance Tax Work?
It’s really quite simple – when you die, whatever you’ve got, wherever it’s been hidden, if HMRC finds it, IHT is potentially chargeable at a flat rate of 40% of the asset value. The first £325,000 of your Estate value (£625,000 if you qualify for the transferrable nil rate band from a deceased spouse) is free of IHT, but any excess is taxed at 40%.

How Can We Help?
There are many simple and perfectly legal steps that you can take during your lifetime in order to effectively reduce your heirs' future IHT liability, and often it’s as simple as restructuring your existing investments, establishing certain types of lifetime Trust or even establishing a suitable gifting strategy. Whatever you do, the key thing to remember is: “Do nothing and the tax man gets it!”.

We can refer you to a carefully selected professional financial adviser, who FREE of charge and WITHOUT OBLIGATION would arrange to visit you in the comfort of your own home to assess your Estate’s liability to Inheritance Tax in the event of your death. From there they can come up with a plan to help reduce, or mitigate completely your Estate’s liability to IHT.