Increasing Numbers Caught by IHT

The number of estates paying inheritance tax (IHT) has risen by two-thirds over the past five years, according to The National Audit Office. They say that the Inland Revenue raised £2.5bn last year from the 300,000 estates that paid IHT.Many people are oblivious to the fact that they could be sitting on top of a potentially explosive, ticking tax bomb that is continually being fuelled by rising house prices. The tax in question is Inheritance Tax (IHT), a non-discriminating tax that doesn't target only the super-rich.Let's consider whether you have a potential problem. The IHT threshold means that tax on assets valued up to this amount is payable at a ‘nil' rate. This includes your property as well as your savings, investments, insurance policies not written under trust and business assets (subject to the availability of relief at 50% or 100%). The value of your estate above this threshold could be subject to a tax of 40 per cent, depending on who inherits your estate following your death. Protecting your assets from the TaxmanIf you haven't done so already, the first place to start is to write a will. This will ensure that your assets are distributed as you want them to be when you die. Provisions to mitigate IHT can also be included.Assets transferred between spouses are exempt from IHT, but other lifetime gifts could also be made in a more tax-efficient way.Most lifetime gifts are exempt from IHT if the donor survives for seven years and there is no limit on the size of such transfers, so this is an excellent way of transferring assets that you do not need to keep in your estate. It may be advisable to cover substantial gifts by insurance against death within seven years.Trusts enable you to transfer assets out of your estate for IHT purposes, but enable trustees to exercise some degree of control over the capital or income (and you can be a trustee). There may be an IHT charge on creation of the trust if it is a discretionary trust, but this would be at 20%, and then only if the transfer plus previous chargeable transfers made in the preceding seven years exceeds the ‘nil' rate.Life assurance policies should be arranged under trust, so that the proceeds do not form part of your estate on death for IHT purposes. If you are considering making substantial lifetime gifts you should talk to an independent financial adviser now, as it might be prudent to make them sooner rather than later. A potential IHT liability could be mitigated. If you are likely to fall foul of it, then an IFA can help you arrange your tax affairs to minimise any IHT liability, and provide professional independent financial advice specific to your circumstances. ------Copyright 2004 David Miles. You are welcome to reproduce this article on your website, so long as it is published "as is" (unedited) and with the author's bio paragraph (resource box) and copyright information included. In addition, all links to external websites must be left in place.