Inheritance tax is charged at a flat rate of 40% on your estate at death. There are various methods of planning your estate to ensure it is both efficient for IHT purposes and provides for your beneficiaries properly.

How we help

• Proactive strategies to reduce IHT exposure through reliefs
• Advice on lifetime estate planning, including use of the nil-rate band (NRB) and residence nil-rate band (RNRB)
• Estate valuation and compliance

Why plan early

The earlier arrangements are made, the greater the chance of taking full advantage of the reliefs and exemptions available. Getting the balance right — providing for your family while keeping the estate efficient — takes skill, foresight and a detailed knowledge of the current tax regime. We provide a discreet, comprehensive service to do exactly that.

How an inheritance tax review works

We start with a full picture of what you own and how you own it: your home and any other property, savings and investments, business interests, pensions, life policies and assets held abroad. We also look at gifts made in the last seven years and at your current will, because both change the calculation.

• An estimate of the inheritance tax that would be due on your estate today
• The reliefs and exemptions that could apply, and those that currently would not
• Options to reduce the charge, with the cost and practical effect of each set out plainly
• Coordination with your solicitor on wills and trusts, and with your financial adviser where investments are involved

A plan is not a one-off exercise. We suggest reviewing it whenever your circumstances change: selling a business or property, receiving an inheritance, retiring, marrying or divorcing, or moving abroad. Each of these can change both the size of the estate and the reliefs available.

Property and the family home

For most families the home is the largest asset, and it is often where planning goes wrong. The residence nil-rate band only applies where a home passes to children or other direct descendants, so the wording of a will can decide whether it is available. Giving a property away during your lifetime can remove it from your estate after seven years, but a gift of a property that has gone up in value can also trigger capital gains tax, at 18% or 24% on residential property, with the 60-day reporting deadline.

Buy-to-let portfolios raise further questions: whether to hold them personally or through a company, and how to pass them on without an unaffordable tax bill. Our property tax work sits alongside this planning.

Common inheritance tax mistakes

• Giving away the family home but carrying on living in it rent-free, so the gift does not count for inheritance tax
• Making regular gifts without keeping the records needed to prove they came from surplus income
• Leaving a will unchanged for decades, so it no longer fits the family, the assets or the current rules
• Assuming a surviving spouse’s unused nil-rate band transfers automatically, when it has to be claimed
• Relying on business relief without checking the business actually qualifies

Each of these can leave your family with a larger bill than necessary, often discovered only when it is too late to put right.

A discreet, family-centred service

Estate planning involves private conversations about family and money. We hold them at our office in Finchley or at your home, and we work in English, Turkish, Persian and Italian, which helps families where different generations are more comfortable in different languages. Fees are agreed in writing before we begin.

• Estates and wills
• Property tax accountant
• Inheritance tax: a summary
• Trusts
• Inheritance tax rates
• Pre-owned assets