Inheritance Tax

updated: August 11, 2011

To obtain a copy of our Guide: Inheritance Tax (Part 1) please click here. Other parts of the Guide are also available on links from this page.

Inheritance Tax (IHT) is a tax on your estate.  It is a combined gift tax and death duty.  In simple terms it is a tax charged on the property you own when you die including any gifts you make in the seven years before your death.

The provisions of the tax allow you to give away your accumulated wealth and, by surviving for a further seven years, for that gift to become exempt from IHT.  This provides you with an opportunity to make prudent plans for your estate in order to reduce the burden of IHT for your beneficiaries.

The words ‘inheritance’ and ‘estate’ may lead you to suppose that you only need to give thought to this particular tax if you are wealthy.  While this is true up to a point, you may consider yourself far from wealthy and yet your heirs may still have to pay IHT when your estate passes to them.

It is in your interests, therefore, to carry out an approximate calculation of your IHT liability and you can do this by following the outline given in this Part 1 of the Inheritance Tax Guides.  You can also ask an accountant or financial adviser to calculate this for you but you should expect to pay a fee for their services.

To obtain further information please click on one of our pdf Guides to Inheritance Tax.

Part 1 of the Guide deals with what Inheritance Tax is, whether it will affect you and your family and the main exemptions and reliefs.

Part 2 of the Guide outlines some dos and don’ts when dealing with Inheritance Tax.

Part 3 of the Guide gives outline details of the main investment products that can be used to reduce the Inheritance Tax due on your estate.