Will

P

pipme

Joined
24 Feb 2004
Messages
4,046
Reaction score
1
Location
Somerset
Country
United Kingdom
Oh gawd .. It has arrived !! That thought about making a will .... Minimising the old dosh from the effects of IHT .. Discretionary trusts and surviving spouses (spice ?) borrowing from that ...
Perhaps the coupla billion bunged freely to IHT unnecessarily each year is due to the people deciding they'd rather give to HMG than our best friend - the Lawyer :eek:

Anyway .... the die is cast and am looking for tips - pitfalls - etc
Joint ownership v tenants in common
Discretionary trusts to protect estate somewhat on second partner death.
etc ..

Ps Of course pro advice will be sought .. but there may be some angles ??
:cry: :cry:
 
Sponsored Links
And you've left it a bit late, old GB has closed a lot of the loopholes especially with respect to discretionaty trusts, seek prof advice immediately. Says ed, discretionary trust beneficiary. All is not lost though, there are things you can do.
 
Not all the holes filled ... yet ... hopefully !! :LOL:

Joking to one side ... with the soaring property prices around today .. One has to think carefully.
Let me run this :-
Normal Joint tenancy of property husband and wife each own 100% of property .. sounds daft, but if either dies the other retains the home with no Inheritance Tax (IHT) due or payable.
BUT, when that survivor dies the whole amount above the 'nil rate band' is liable for IHT at 40%.
Sever the Joint tenancy, re-register at land registry as 'Tenancy in common' with a 50% share each ... Now the trick SEEMS to be when first partner dies, their share of house and dosh (their estate) is placed in a discretionary trust fund with the wife as main beneficiary and provision, in the case of her demise, for the children etc. She then has full access to the trust plus 50% of the estate (apparently she can 'borrow' dosh from the fund)... If or when she winds up looking at the lid, only her 50% of the estate is liable for IHT and then only if above the nil rate threshold ..Children inherit (?) her 50% of the original estate plus the remnants of the disc' trust fund ...After repaying the dosh borrowed from the will trust fund... If nil band was £263k and original estate £526k Then 40% of the liable £263k rescued from IHT (£105k) Well in excess of any costs incurred with registry or setting up the trust.
Also I think there are implications regarding age care, the trust fund would be ring fenced out of Councils clutches if surviving partner requires nursing home care .. that is, only Her half of the estate could be clawed back in care costs ... Again after debt repayed to trust fund ... That debt to the fund is repayable on second partner's death ... But is going to kids anyway so in effect the debt dies with second partner....
More delving to do !!
;)
 
Sponsored Links
Dear Pip

Why don't you contact a specialist on this imprtant subject? For a nominal fee (or even for free) they can tell you the in's and out's.
I recommend this one in Maidstone, Kent. Ask for Monty.
 
Thanks W ... Bit of a step from deepest Somerset .... Just tossing around some stuff I have found here and there ...
Will go to 'expert' but need to know a little beforehand.

It suddenly struck me just how lots of people are coming in range of IHT nowadays ... and given the general malaise in anything slightly mathematical .. are possibly not preparing properly for that day which no man or woman has ever escaped .. yet. :D
 
pipme said:
It suddenly struck me just how lots of people are coming in range of IHT nowadays ... and given the general malaise in anything slightly mathematical .. are possibly not preparing properly for that day which no man or woman has ever escaped .. yet. :D
Click to expand...

What most amazed us in inheritance differences between UK and NL was first of all the IHT on your won house! Saving/working all your live to repay the mortgage and then in the end having to pay the state for the pleasure!

Second thing is hte fact htat if you don't specify this, when you're married or living togther unmarried and your both die togehter (or shortly after each other) your estate isn't devided 50/50 between the families (when there are no children), but according to who owned what.

Sorry for any spelling mistakes, everytime I try the spell check Firefox crashes (and I don't want to tpye everything three times ;)
 
Bit like the water we drink .. recycled umpteen times .. We have some cra p laws on the face of it... Just there to provide a good living for the lawyers who attempt to comb the tangles out of it all .. Such a waste of time and resources ... But then you now know what a bunch of pirates HMG is and always has been ... :D
 
Anyone heard about the ability to grant yourself a lease on your own (freehold) property? This might apply more to very valuable properties, I don't know, but I read about this idea a few years ago. Seems that an elderly relative (maybe gran) of that ubiquitous waste of space Sara Plonker-Tomkins, in order to pre-empt pending IHT, was able to transfer the freehold ownership of her stately pile to her relatives as beneficiaries. They paid very minimal tax as there was a sitting tenant on the premises. But to ensure that her (probably) avaricious relatives didn't bung her in the dustbin when she wasn't looking she had conditionally issued herself with a 20year lease guaranteeing her tenancy of the property 'til she bit the dust of her own volition. :evil:

Dunno what the costs are but I imagine they are pretty pricey if you've gotta engage solicitors to do the work. :confused:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Sponsored Links
Back
Top