Tax-efficient estate planning

Your estate plan

It is never too early to start thinking about your estate plan. If your estate is large it could be subject to inheritance tax (IHT), but even if it is small, planning and a well drafted Will can ensure your assets will go to your chosen beneficiaries. IHT is currently payable where a person’s taxable estate is in excess of £325,000.
 

1. If you are not sure what your business is worth, we can help you value it. Most business assets currently qualify for IHT reliefs.
2. Exclude exempt gifts (eg. spouse, annual exemption)
3. Subject to a taper relief for gifts between 3 and 7 years before death.

Drafting a Will

Anyone who owns property – a home, a car, investments, business interests, retirement savings, collectables, personal belongings, etc – needs a Will. A Will allows you to choose who will distribute your property after your death, and the people to whom it will be distributed. If you have no Will, your property could be distributed according to the intestacy laws.

The more you have, the less you should leave to chance when it comes to creating an estate plan that minimises taxes.

We can help you to ensure that, through planned lifetime gifts and a tax-efficient Will, more of your wealth will pass to the people you love.

Where should you start?

Begin by answering the following questions:

Who?

Who do you want to benefit from your wealth? What do you need to provide for your spouse? Should your children share equally in your estate – does one or more have special needs? Do you wish to include grandchildren? Would you like to give to charity?

What?

Should your business pass only to those children who have become involved in the business, and should you compensate the others with assets of comparable value? Consider the implications of multiple ownership.

When?

Consider the age and maturity of your beneficiaries. Should assets be placed into a trust restricting access to income and/or capital? Or should gifts wait until your death?

Inheritance tax exemptions

You should make the best use of IHT exemptions, including:

• The £3,000 annual exemption
• Normal expenditure gifts out of after-tax income
• Gifts in consideration of marriage (up to specified limits)
• Exemption for gifts you make of up to £250 per annum to any number of persons
• Exemption for gifts between spouses, facilitating equalisation of estates. But transfers on or within seven years of death to a spouse domiciled outside the UK are exempt only to the extent of £55,000.

Married couples and civil partners

On the first death, it is often the case that the bulk of the deceased spouse’s (or partner’s) assets pass to the survivor.

In the past this has meant that some or all of the nil-rate band (the IHT ‘exemption’, £325,000 for 2010/11) was wasted unless a nil-rate band trust had been included in the Will.

Under rules which apply to second deaths after 8 October 2007, the percentage of the nil-rate band not used on the first death is added to the nil-rate band for the second death.

Case Study 7

Gavin and Michael were civil partners. Gavin died in May 2008, leaving £50,000 to his more distant family but the bulk of his estate to Michael. If Michael dies in 2015/16 his estate will qualify for a nil-rate band of: 

This ability to carry forward the nil-rate band unused on the first death means that nil-rate band trusts no longer form such an important part of Will planning, but giving your executors some discretion over the destination of part of your estate will build in some flexibility.

If you die within seven years of making substantial lifetime gifts, they will be added back into your estate and may result in a substantial IHT liability. You can take out a life assurance policy to cover this tax risk if you wish.

However you can make substantial gifts out of your taxable estate into trust now, and as a trustee retain control over the assets (this may well be subject to CGT or IHT charges).

Reduce your liability by using gifts

Business assets

Under current rules, there will be no CGT and perhaps little or no IHT to pay if you retain business property until your death. This is fine, as long as you wish to continue to hold your business interests until death, and recognise that the rules may change.

Alternatively, you may wish to hand your business over to the next generation. A gift of business property today will probably qualify for up to 100% IHT relief, and any capital gain can more than likely be held over to the new owner, so there will be no current CGT liability.

Appreciating assets

Gifts do not have to be in cash. You could save more IHT and/or CGT by gifting assets with the potential for growth in value. Gift while the asset has a lower value, and the appreciation then accrues outside your estate.

Gifts out of income

Another way to build up capital outside your own estate is to make regular gifts out of income, perhaps by way of premiums on an insurance policy written in trust for your heirs. Regular payments of this type will be exempt from IHT.

If business or agricultural property is included in the estate, it may be appropriate to leave it to someone other than your spouse; otherwise the special reliefs will be lost.

Having taken the time and trouble to make a Will and prepare an estate plan, you must review it regularly to ensure it reflects changes in family and financial circumstances as well as changes in tax law.

With regular reviews we can help you to ensure that you make the most of estate planning tax breaks.

Making charitable donations

Gifts to charity can take many forms. Perhaps you are already making regular donations to one or more charities, coupled with one-off donations in response to natural disasters or televised appeals. Here we look at some of the ways you can increase the value of your gift to your chosen charities through the various forms of tax relief available.

Gift Aid: Donations made under Gift Aid are made net of tax. What that means is that for every £1 you donate, the charity can recover 28p from HMRC. Furthermore, if you are paying tax at the 40% higher rate, you can claim tax relief equal to 25p.

Consequently, at a net cost to you of only 75p, the charity receives £1.28 – or, for a net cost to you of £100, your donation is worth over £170 to charity.

A payment made in the current tax year can, subject to certain deadlines, be treated for tax purposes as if it had been made in 2009/10. This may not appear important to many people, but if you paid higher rate tax in 2009/10 and do not expect to do so this year, a claim will allow you to obtain relief at last year’s higher rate.

You must pay enough tax in the relevant year to cover the tax the charity will recover (that is, 25p for every £1 you gift – the extra 3p is a further payment from HMRC, which applies to gifts made up to 5 April 2011).

Payroll giving: You can make regular donations to charity through your payroll, if your employer agrees to operate the scheme.

The scheme operates by deducting an amount from your gross pay equal to the net cost to you of the monthly net donation you want to make.

Tax Repayments: If, when we prepare your 2010 Tax Return, we find that you have overpaid tax, you have the option to ask HMRC to send the payment on your behalf to a charity of your choice. You also have the option to (a) have the donation treated as under Gift Aid, and (b) treated as if it had been made in 2009/10.

Gifts of assets: Not all donations need to be money. You can make a gift of assets, and if the assets fall within the approved categories the gift can obtain a double tax relief. Any gain which would accrue on the gift is exempt from CGT, and you are also entitled to income tax relief at up to 40% on the value of your donation.

Single people

Single people might not have given much thought to estate planning, but you should make a Will to set out your preferred funeral arrangements, how you want your estate to devolve on your death, and who will have responsibility for it.

Your estate might pass to your parents or your siblings, but would you perhaps prefer to leave your wealth to your nieces and nephews – with the bonus of potential IHT savings through ‘generation skipping’? A Will is also vital for anyone who, although legally ‘single’, has a partner they wish to benefit from their estate on their death.

Remarriage and estate planning

Parents face a different set of challenges in ‘second’ marriages, with children from former and current marriages. If both partners are wealthy, you might want to direct more of your own wealth to children of your first marriage. If your partner is not wealthy, you might wish to protect him or her by either a direct bequest or a life interest trust (allowing your assets to devolve on their death according to your wishes). Should younger children receive a bigger share than grown up children, already making their own way in the world, and should your partner’s children from the previous marriage benefit equally with your own?

If you are concerned about your former spouse gaining control of your wealth, consider creating a trust to ensure maximum flexibility in the hands of people you choose.

You need to plan to ensure that your partner is properly provided for. Look at your Will, pension provisions, life insurance and joint tenancies.

Skipping a generation

Your children may be grown up and financially secure. If your assets pass to them, you will be adding to their estate, and to the IHT which will be charged on their deaths. Instead, consider leaving something to your grandchildren.

Estate planning essentials

Estate plans can quickly become out of date. Revisions could be due if any of these events have occurred since you last updated your estate plan:

• The birth of a child or grandchild
• The death of your spouse, another beneficiary, your executor or your children’s guardian
• Marriages or divorces in the family
• A substantial increase or decrease in the value of your estate
• The formation, purchase or sale of a business
• Retirement
• Changes in tax law

Protect your assets: make a Will

A properly drawn Will is a powerful planning tool, which enables you to do the following:

• Protect your family by making provisions to meet their future financial needs
• Minimise taxes that might reduce the size of your estate
• Name an experienced executor who is capable of ensuring that your wishes are carried out
• Name a trusted guardian for your children
• Provide for any special needs of specific family members
• Include gifts to charity
• Establish trusts to manage the deferral of the inheritance of any beneficiaries
• Secure the peace of mind of knowing that your family and other heirs will receive according to your express wishes

Wills can also be re-written by others within the two years after your death, in the event that some changes are agreed by all concerned to be appropriate.

Please call us for information on:

• Lifetime gifts of assets, including business interests
• Gifts to charity, and minimising tax on gifts and inheritances
• Disposition of your assets on death
• Using trusts in lifetime and estate tax planning
• Your choice of an executor
• Inheritance tax reduction planning and life assurance to cover any liabilities
• Naming a guardian for your children
• How your business interests should devolve if you die or become incapacitated