After You have Gone
You have worked hard for the money you are hoping to leave so that your family can benefit financially. The Government taxes any money you leave over a certain level, and this can reduce your children’s or dependents’ inheritance by anything up to 40%
You may be comfortable with that – some of our clients say that most of the money they are leaving has not been taxed, so this is fair – others take a different view.
There are many steps you can take to reduce the amount of inheritance tax you will have to pay:
- Is your will written in the most tax efficient manner? This is really important both for married and unmarried couples.
The way couples write their wills can make a massive difference
to the money they leave behind.
- Have you made use of all the tax excemptions you can during your lifetime?
- Have you considered using trusts to take amounts of money out of your estate?
Each of these measures can substantially reduce the amount of tax for which your children might be liable.
However, it is really important that you take advice as early as you can – ideally before your total wealth builds to the level at which you become liable.
And if that still leaves an inheritance tax liability, then you can still lessen the effect of the tax bill on your children’s inheritance. Talk to one of the IFAs about our ideas.
