Inheritance tax

Careful planning now can help reduce inheritance tax for your loved ones in the future.

Inheritance tax (IHT) is levied on your total wealth before it can be passed on to your beneficiaries. This includes cash, assets and property, as well as some of the gifts you make during your lifetime.

The current nil-rate threshold is £325,000 meaning, if no other reliefs are applied, anything above this threshold will be taxed at 40 per cent.

The Residence Nil Rate Band increases this threshold by £175,000 if you are passing on your primary residence to a direct descendent.

If you are a married couple or civil partners you can pass your possessions to each other tax-free. The remaining tax-free allowance of the first spouse or partner gets passed on to the surviving spouse or partner, which can increase the tax threshold to up to £1 million.

At WMT, we can help you reduce inheritance tax, or possibly even eliminate a potential IHT charge with our specialist advice and careful planning. Some of the options we can guide you through to help you ensure the best outcome are:

When making gifts, we can check if they are tax-free, potentially exempt transfers (PETs), or taxable gifts. There is a chance tax will be due if the value of your gifts amounts to over £3,000 in a year and they were made in the last 7 years before the end of life.

Spend or give away part of your wealth during your lifetime, making sure you leave enough money for yourself to live comfortably.

Take out a life insurance policy under trust, as the payout doesn’t count towards your estate and may be big enough to cover the IHT bill.

Make the most of your will to ensure those you want to inherit do so. Consider adding a deed of variation to your will, so your beneficiaries may redirect part of the inheritance to someone else, with their mutual agreement.

Establish suitable Trusts to shelter assets from IHT liabilities and ensure tax-efficient passing on to beneficiaries eventually.

Alongside your inheritance tax planning, we can help to get your financial records in order during your lifetime to make the probate process easier for your loved ones after your death. Our probate planning services include a combination of business tax planning, trust and estate planning and plans for retirement to help you to organise the financial aspects of your life.

Our inheritance tax service is based upon a detailed review of your wealth and outstanding liabilities. We put you in control by giving you the information you need in a transparent and understandable way. Together we arrive at a solution that makes the most out of your estate and works best for you and your beneficiaries.

To get maximum benefit out of your tax situation, we can combine our IHT advice with advice on trusts, remuneration planning, and capital gains tax, as well as the preparation of your personal tax return.

Get in touch with our tax team to find out more about how we can help you reduce inheritance tax liabilities.