Inheritance Tax | Tax Year End April 2023

In this blog mini-series, our Tax Partner, Terry Smith CTA ATT, provides his thoughts on a number of matters that should be considered prior to 5th April 2023. As well as confirming the details of allowances and forthcoming legislative changes, Terry also offers some advice to help clients make informed and timely decisions.

In this post, Terry provides an update and actions relating to Inheritance Tax.

Other topics in this blog series:

Inheritance Tax

The Inheritance Tax (IHT) nil rate band is currently frozen at £325,000 until 5 April 2028. As part of a person’s ongoing Inheritance Tax planning, full use should be made of available exemptions. The exemptions are relatively small, but, over time the effect can be substantial:

• Annual Exemption – An amount of up to £3,000 can be given away each tax year and, if unused in a year, that amount can be carried forward for one year and utilised in that later year.

• Small Gifts Exemption – You can give up to £250 to as many people as you wish each tax year.

• Gifts out of Income – If your income regularly exceeds your expenditure, you can give away the excess. To gain this relief, the gifts must be part of a settled pattern of giving or there must be evidence of the intention to make these gifts. It may be necessary to ensure that you have evidence demonstrating that the gifts have been made out of your post tax income.

• Lifetime Giving – A person may also consider making lifetime gifts in excess of the above exemptions. A person must survive such a gift by seven years for it to fall out of their estate entirely, and the donor must not benefit from the assets once they are gifted. The gifts might be absolute gifts to family members, or they could be gifts into trust. Gifts into trust can give rise to an immediate charge to inheritance tax at the rate of 20% and therefore, transfers to trust should be limited to the available nil rate band. Trusts can be very beneficial, but specialist advice is needed. You always need to watch if Capital Gains Tax (CGT) arises on lifetime gifts, so you should take specialist advice on gifts of assets rather than cash.

• IHT Efficient Investments – Another alternative can be to place funds into IHT efficient investments, for example, shares in qualifying AIM listed companies. Such investments benefit from business property relief and as such, are relieved from IHT after they have been owned for two years. EIS and SEIS shares usually qualify for business property relief. Appropriate investment advice would be needed when considering such planning, as the commercial risk needs to be considered as well as the tax benefits.

From 2017/18, the Residence Nil Rate Band (RNRB) was introduced as an additional nil rate band of £100,000 where a residence is passed onto a direct descendent. This additional allowance will increase each year by £25,000 reaching a maximum of £175,000 by 2020/21, which still stands to this day. Care needs to be taken with estates worth over £2m, even where Business Property Relief (BPR) or other reliefs apply.

Action Point

There are possibilities to ensure estates are reduced during one’s lifetime to prevent a large IHT liability on death. As part of the planning, your advisor would need to consider all sources of wealth and take into account many other factors. The building up of a personal balance sheet and establishing income receipts and living cost requirements can bring planning possibilities into focus. Early action can often lead to a large part of one’s estate being shielded from IHT.

All the articles in this blog series have been written to provide general advice that relates to all our clients. If you have questions regarding your own personal or commercial circumstances, please contact a member of the team today.

The tax year ends on 5th April, but please be aware that some changes may come into effect on 1st April. Plan ahead.

Terry Smith

Terry started life at HM Revenue and Customs before moving to Ashdens and then on to BDO and Chantrey Vellacott, the combination of which has provided Terry with a wide breadth of experience which has proved invaluable when helping a broad range of clients with their tax affairs.

Whether it involves meticulously organising a client’s tax affairs or leveraging his expertise to mitigate their tax exposure, Terry has a passion for delivering tangible results.