Inheritance Tax

[peter026]

This Government, or Gordon Brown, to be more precise, has not raised the threshold of inheritance tax to come into line with the cost of buying your house.

The threshold, at the moment is £285000, anything after that is taxable @ 40%.

If this abhorant tax was kept in line with price rises, the threshold would be nearer £400000.

You may think that only the house itself would be assessed for this tax.......Wrong, all the contents of the house, garage if you have one and the proverbial garden shed, will also be valued and added to the estate, along with any savings and/or shares, so if you have any antiques/collectibles and expensive entertainment systems, these will also bump the total up.

What to do to cut this tax? Sign over part of the house to your children to be held in trust. That is one way of doing it, but then your children would have to pay capital gains tax, because they have to sell the house to pay a little less inheritance tax.

You pay your mortgage from money that is already taxed, as is the money you put aside for a rainy day.

Gordon Brown, with his prudence has decided that he is much more qualified to spend our hard earned cash by keeping the inheritance tax threshold artificially low.

The only people making a lot of money from this are the Solicitors, and Gordon Brown

When is he going to see sense, and listen to the people, after all it was the populace who voted the Labour party in.

Does it not surprise you to hear that millions are leaving this country each year. Will the last person please turn out the lights.

When will this Government of ours Govern for the people and not for their own egotistical trip and any freebies going, after all we put them there, and we can just as easily kick them out.

So now I am SKI to save on inheritance tax for my kids

Rant over. and I'm too old to emigrate, otherwise I'd be long gone

[tdiplc]

This situation is absolutely disgusting.

It is nothing short of theft IMHO.

We get taxed on everything we earn, spend and save. What little is left over after having paid the tax should be yours to keep and to pass on to your descendants or give to the dogs home.

This tax was originally designed for the very wealthy but of course because they did not index link the threshold, almost everyone will fall victim.

There is no doubt in my mind that the Govt and perhaps some other misguided people will argue that if they didn't get the revenue from IHT they would get it from us by another means. I don't accept this as I believe that a more efficient Govt with more sensible policies and decent house keeping skills would save us a fortune.

The money that this Govt waste is absolutely staggering

[RayKhan]

Something’s that can help is to make sure you have a will. If you don't you have to pay the tax man upfront for the privilege of administering the estate.

If you are married and have children on the death of one of you it is wise to put a share of the family home to the children (equal parts). This then stops the council from being able to sell the house if your partner was unfortunate enough to have to go in a nursing home (if you can pay you will pay).

Having just had the unfortunate task of sorting my younger sisters estate out (no legal will) I can’t stress highly enough the benefits that can be gained from having a proper will. The other point worth mentioning is that it took nearly 18 months to sort it all.

[fatpieman69]

John Caudwell sold his company for 1.5 billion and he payed 10% tax, why? because the government knew that if they charged 40% he would do the deal over seas and pay little to no tax! but I asume that if the children are abroad they will still get stung as the house and property is in the UK. so obviously if they know that you can't get round it then there quite happy to take your money! :D

ah well, it happens, and there is not alot we can do. you go to other countries and they get you in other ways so no place is better, the only way would be to move round the world to different places when different taxes occur. It's not going to happen! :D

[Parthiban]

ah well, it happens, and there is not alot we can do. you go to other countries and they get you in other ways so no place is better, the only way would be to move round the world to different places when different taxes occur. It's not going to happen! :D

Not entirely true, don't think any country taxes the same sum of money as many times as we have to put up with.......

I do think IHT is extortionate, and just a way to screw everyone over, but overall I don't have a problem paying tax, as long as I actually see something being done with it:

Why are there holes all over the roads?

Why are the roads getting smaller instead of expanding like every other country does?

Why are we being forced out of our cars onto trains that are more expensive that taking a plane?

Why can criminals feel they can get away with anything?

Why does the benefit fraud advert state that they could face an interview, and not a real punishment?

I could go on forever with this list, but there's no point......I'm seriously thinking about moving to the US once I'm qualified - which is the main problem nowadays I guess, with all the skilled people leaving the country, who'll be footing the bill for all the rest of the country who are on benefits....... ;)

[Russdx]

i for 1 aint stayin in this ****hole of a country cost to much off to usa lol

[Rillo]

There are ways to remove/reduce inheritance tax. You need to see a specialist solicitor and they will charge you a grand or so but you can dramatically reduce the tax liability.

As for comments about the state of this country - I couldn't agree more. A few years time and I'll be off abroad. The country has been on the slide a long time but it just seems to have accelerated tenfold in the last 10 years under this government.

If I had said to you 10 years ago :

1) criminals would not be sent to prison because they are full

2) we would have no idea how many people were entering the country, where they came from and what they did when they got here

3) that we would have human rights legislation that allows criminals to sue the police

4) a benefits system that makes scrounging a career choice

5) that political correctness would run wild and allow otherwise loony crackpots to make far reaching decisions that undermine our own culture

6) that there would be plans to put a black box in every car to spy on every journey

7) that you could get a criminal record for not sorting your waste into the correct box

8) there would be a bus lane on the M4

9) 8% of the population of Stoke would be Polish

10) that we would have highest ever taxes, pledge billions in foreign aid but still close our own hospitals

11) that A muslim cleric who we gave asylum to could openly stand in the street and preach murder and hate and we would still give him legal aid and full benefits

12) that someone like Jade Goody could become a millionaire

13) that the general public would be persecuted by the police/cameras to raise money but real criminals would walk free.

14) That someone without a driving license could decide what you can drive, when and how much it will cost (Ken Livingstone, Stephen Byers)

15) Scottish MPs could vote on English political programmes but not vice versa

16) .... the list goes on and on sadly........

You would have called me mad!!!!

[lexus boy]

Yeah its a bad tax.

But everyone complains about tax, thinking we pay high taxes.

We don't pay that higher taxes for what we get, compared to the rest of the world really