Inheritance Tax


Inheritance Tax (IHT)

February 2023

What is IHT and when do you pay it?

If you pass on property, or anything else of monetary value, to your descendants, you will pay Inheritance Tax (IHT), but only if the total value exceeds £325,000 which is the threshold currently set..

Anything above that amount will incur tax at 40%.

Since married or civil partners can transfer assets free of tax between each other, one partner automatically inherits the other’s allowance.

So in practice, the IHT allowance is often doubled to £650,000.

For example, if a father passes wealth to a mother, who subsequently also dies, she can pass on up to £650,000 without having to pay IHT.

Trusts

Even if a parent sets up a trust in favour of a child, inheritance tax is still payable. In most cases, IHT will be charged at 20% on money or property when it goes into the trust, if it exceeds the IHT allowance.

If the parent dies within seven years, an additional 20% is charged, to equal the 40% non-trust rate.

In addition, assets within a trust are usually re-assessed every ten years, to take account of changing property valuations, for example.

Under the existing rules, you can pass on money, property or possessions without paying any tax, as long as you survive for seven years after giving it to the recipient.

If you die within the seven year period, and you gift more than the allowance, a taper system exists. If you die six years after making the gift, for example, you will only pay 8% IHT. See table below.

In addition you can give up to £250 a year to as many people as you like without paying tax.

Usually it is the estate which is liable for IHT. However if you are the recipient of a gift, and the giver has died within 7 years, and has already given away more than £325,000, you could be liable to pay IHT yourself.

Wedding gifts

The rules around wedding – or civil partnership – gifts are different again. Providing the gifts are made at the time of the wedding, there are allowances as follows:

·         £5,000 can be given tax-free to a child

·         £2,500 can be given to a grandchild or great grandchild

·         £1,000 can be given to anyone

IHT taper rates for gifts
Time since the giftIHT rate
7 years0%
6-7 years8%
5-6 years16%
4-5 years24%
3-4 years32%
less than 3 years40%
source: HM Treasury

·         Anyone can give away up to £3,000 a year, and pay no tax. This is known as the annual exemption. If unused, this allowance can be carried over to the following year, up to a maximum of £6,000.

·         In addition, if you can show that the gift was funded out of income – as opposed to savings – you will not pay IHT. But you may have to prove that the living standards of the deceased person.

·         Transferrable Main Residence allowance

·         In April 2017, the government  introduced a new Transferable Main Residence Allowance (TMRA), to help people pass on property to their direct descendants (children, grandchildren, and step-children – but not nieces or nephews)

·         This allows a further £175,000 to be transferred which when added to the £325,000 IHT threshold, allows each individual to pass on £500,000 with no tax payable – or £1million  per couple

  • If this allowance is transferred between spouses, the value of the transferred allowance will depend on when the second, not first, partner dies.

·         Further details of TMRA can be found at www.gov.uk/government/publications/inheritance-tax-main-residence-nil-rate-band-and-the-existing-nil-rate-band/inheritance-tax-main-residence-nil-rate-band-and-the-existing-nil-rate-band