2nd October 2020, updated 16/6/22
Inheritance Tax (IHT) was traditionally regarded as a tax only for the very wealthy. However, with a threshold of £325,000 (£650,000 for married couples and civil partners) that will remain frozen until the end of the 2025-26 tax year and the price of houses still relatively high, more and more people could find themselves caught in the net. This could force many people to sell family heirlooms or investment assets to meet tax bills that a little bit of planning could have helped to avoid.
This article is designed to introduce you to IHT, outlining who needs to be concerned, explaining how IHT works and introducing some of the allowances that can help to mitigate its effects on your Estate.
What is Inheritance Tax?
Inheritance Tax is payable when someone transfers ownership of their assets, usually on death. Each individual is entitled to a nil-rate band of £325,000, under which no Inheritance
Tax is payable. Traditionally, few estates exceeded this nil-rate band.
However, the house price boom of recent years has pushed more people into the IHT net. Alongside ISAs, death-in-service benefit, foreign homes or less obvious assets such as
paintings or cars, this has boosted the value of an average estate.
The tax rate for all assets over the nil-rate band is 40% so it is possible to build up a large bill
quickly. Also, Inheritance Tax becomes payable relatively soon: it is due six months after the end of the month of death.
This does not give the administrators much time to sell a house or liquidate other assets if
that is necessary. With that in mind, if you unexpectedly find your Estate now exceeds the
taxman’s limits, what can you do?
Although the Government made fundamental changes regarding IHT in the 2006 Budget, there are a number of exemptions and allowances available for you. Where possible, you should aim to maximise use of these exemptions and allowances if you wish to pass on as much of your hard-earned cash to your heirs as possible.
Exemptions and Allowances
In addition to the £325,000 nil-rate band available on each estate, transfers between husband and wife or between civil partners are free of tax. Since 9 October 2007, such
legally recognised partners can also pass over any unused portion of their own nil-rate band
so that, in effect, the surviving spouse has up to £650,000. However, this does not apply to
cohabiting partners or ‘common-law’ spouses.
Moreover, an additional, transferable residence nil-rate band (RNRB) was phased in, starting in April 2017. This enables individuals to pass on their main residence to direct descendants – such as a child or grandchild – without incurring IHT. This allowance is £175,000 . When added to the existing nil-rate band of £325,000, this creates an IHT threshold of £500,000 for estates. Any of this unused allowance can be transferred to the surviving spouse or civil partner, raising the effective IHT threshold to £1 million; moreover, homeowners who opt to downsize will not lose their allowance. However, estates with a net value of over £2 million will suffer a tapered withdrawal of the main residence nil-rate band.
The majority of other exemptions and allowances come about through distributing
some of your wealth prior to death. Such assets transferred prior to death are termed ‘potentially exempt transfers’ (PETs) for IHT purposes and they are potentially exempt because, from the day you give them away, the tax due on death is subject to a tapering over seven years, starting at 100% of liability for the first three years, then falling proportionally from 80% over the next four. If you survive the full seven years, the IHT liability on that asset becomes zero.
However, this taper relief only applies to amounts in excess of the nil-rate band. As there is no tax due on the first £325,000, then no taper relief can apply. Therefore, if you give away anything up to £325,000 and die within those seven years, the full amount of the
original gift will be added back into your estate and tax will be calculated on the total as if you never gave that amount away.
Having said that, if you do survive seven years, then that amount is considered as having left
your Estate and you therefore get the chance to benefit from the nil-rate band allowance a
second time.
There is an important restriction on PETs called a ‘gift with reservation of benefit’. The
principle is that, if you continue to enjoy the benefit of an asset, the transfer is entirely
ineffective for Inheritance Tax purposes. This is in place to stop parents, for example, transferring their homes to their children and continuing to live in them. In order for such a
transfer to be potentially exempt, a full market rent would have to be paid to the children
after transfer.
IHT on Gifts
Gifts of £3,000 or less are allowed annually without being liable for IHT – and, if unused, this
allowance can be carried forward for one year. There is also a gift exemption applying to ‘regular gifts out of income’. These gifts can be as much as you like, but they must form part of a ‘pattern of giving’ and HM Revenue & Customs must be satisfied that, after the gift has been made, you are left with sufficient income to maintain your existing standard of living.
You are also allowed gifts on consideration of marriage or civil partnership. The amounts vary
according to your relationship to the bride and groom; at the moment, £5,000 is allowed from the parents, £2,500 from the grandparents and £1,000 by anyone else. Gifts to charities also fall outside inheritance tax.
Should you wish to further discuss Inheritance Tax, please don't hesitate to contact us.
Content courtesy of Adviser-Hub, checked for accuracy by Culverhouse Financial Planning Ltd.
The article outlines just some of the things you could consider in relation to Inheritance Tax Planning. It does not represent financial advice. If you would like personalised financial advice please contact a financial adviser.
Remember that the value of investments can fall as well as rise and past performance is not a guide to future performance.
Taxation is based on current legislation which is subject to change and will also depend on the individual circumstances of each investor.