Gifts to siblings

bivvyman

My mother is 87 and lives in self contained ajoining granny flat , she wants to gift us some money - Can she do this ? any guidance appreciated .

NB is this is the wrong form please advise correct one

CLAPTON

Yes, she can give you (anyone) what see likes.

There a some issues that you may want to consider

-is she likely to need to go into a home... giving away assets that mean the state would need to pay might be considered as deliberate deprivation of assets and in principle they would be recovered.

-if her estate is large enough to mean IHT would be payable in the event of her death, then the gifts would be included in the value of the estate if she died within 7 years. There are exception etc.

If you indicated how much she was worth, whether her husband is alive, how much she is thinking of giving etc. it would be possible to be more specific.

bivvyman

Mum has 80K in savings (deposit accounts) , divorced , small 3K a year private pension , pays us £30 a week for food electricity water etc . State of health is poor , without us she would have to be in care home

Regards

CLAPTON

IHT is clearly not an issue.

If, in the future she needs to go into a home then there may be an issue with 'deliberate deprivation of assets' as her pension will be insufficient to pay the fees.

Otherwise she can give you anything she likes without tax being an issue for either her or you.

EdInvestor

bivvyman wrote: »

Mum has 80K in savings (deposit accounts) , divorced , small 3K a year private pension , pays us £30 a week for food electricity water etc . State of health is poor , without us she would have to be in care home

Regards

If she gave away the 80k to you and then had to go into care the council would assume voluntary deprivation and take a charge on your house if you were seeking to get them to pay her care fees..

Look into "immediate needs annuities". You may find that buying one of these with part of the money if Mum needs care will get her fees covered and also leave some money for the family.

https://www.hsbcpensions.co.uk/nhfa/pdfs/is6.pdf

bivvyman

Hi thanks for info so far , are there any guidelines as to the amount of gifts in terms of % of assets or an amount which could be made without been interpretated as asset deprivation

Regards

EdInvestor

No, they will all be interpreted as deprivation.