Inheritance Tax: Have you considered your liability?

Matthew Wilcox, Associate Partner, Surveyor and RICS Registered Valuer, discusses how Stags Professional Services can provide advice to clients to assist with their inheritance tax planning, to help assess your potential liability and to plan for the future.

As Benjamin Franklin famously noted; “Nothing is certain except death and taxes” but, despite this and probably due to the nature of the subject, Inheritance Tax is a subject many of us try to avoid. However, in recent months, we have been more regularly approached by clients wishing to assess their potential liability and asking for advice on how they might minimise any tax that could be payable.

Inheritance tax is a tax that your beneficiaries may have to pay on your estate (money, shares, possessions, property etc) with everything chargeable taxed at 40%. There are however, various nil-rate bands, reliefs and exemptions which apply to help mitigate this.

Stags Professional Services department is often asked to provide advice to clients to assist with their inheritance tax planning, particularly with regards to the property owned. In order to assess your potential liability and plan for the future, we would therefore recommend the following are completed:

1. Arrange for your assets owned to be valued, including all property. If there is agricultural property, we would recommend obtaining both Market Values and Agricultural Values of the whole and component parts.
2. Ascertain which nil-rate bands and other reliefs might apply.
3. Ascertain which nil-rate bands and other reliefs could apply through restructuring, changing the property uses, asset transfers etc.
4. On assessing the above, determine whether, on balance, it is prudent to make adjustments to the estate and, if so, put in place a plan of action allocating timescales for the various actions to be complete.

Inheritance tax is a subject most of us would much rather avoid, but careful planning now could help your beneficiaries on your death.

If you would like assistance with your tax planning, please contact Matthew Wilcox on 01884 235701 or m.wilcox@stags.co.uk.

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Inheritance Tax: Have you considered your liability?