Inheritance Tax

pablo941

It's most frustrating for many of us to, having paid into the national pocket (with something of a large hole in btw) all our lives, raised our children and worked hard...you may even have been lucky enough to eat through half those mortgage payments.

But when you keel over and those endo morphines ar finally released, you/your property and any savings that are above a certain figure, are put in a big blender and 40% of the juice gets sent down that same old hole again.

Therefore, I consider it fair hunting to try and beat the tax man from at least the graveyard. And I would like to leave my nearest and dearest a little more if possible.

With some introductory research, the Cayman Islands are under pressure, and Portugal for us euro's are supposedly the cheapest INH payers in Europe (can't say I'm aware of where switzerland is here). There are also trusts, which although good, can be a little limited.

My first question is, how does it work with Joint accounts here and abroad? Can you leave untaxable monies this way to friends and family?

Secondly, is it possible to set up your own "outside of international waters" account or trust which isn't affected by any national INH taxation

Finally, what of Switzerland and is there anything you recommend I should look into? Perhaps a large paypal transfer :P?

Many thanks
Pablo

Pumpkinface_2

What is your domicile? If you are UK domiciled then your estate will be liable for UK IHT no matter where the assets are.

dzug1

Unless you propose to go and live permanently in one of these countries, it's not going to do you the slightest good and will just complicate things, now and in future.

As a UK resident your estate is liable for IHT on your worldwide assets. You may in fact land up paying two lots of IHT - to the country where the assets are, and to the UK. At best the foreign IHT will be set against the UK liability.

Unless you are proposing to be dishonest and 'hide' the foreign assets? In that case your relatives will have considerable problems if they ever want to repatriate them.

Pumpkinface_2

dzug1 wrote: »

Unless you propose to go and live permanently in one of these countries, it's not going to do you the slightest good and will just complicate things, now and in future.

As a UK resident your estate is liable for IHT on your worldwide assets. You may in fact land up paying two lots of IHT - to the country where the assets are, and to the UK. At best the foreign IHT will be set against the UK liability.

Unless you are proposing to be dishonest and 'hide' the foreign assets? In that case your relatives will have considerable problems if they ever want to repatriate them.

Even going to live in one of these countries won't necessarily help. IHT is based on domicile not residency.

SeniorSam

pablo941 wrote: »

It's most frustrating for many of us to, having paid into the national pocket (with something of a large hole in btw) all our lives, raised our children and worked hard...you may even have been lucky enough to eat through half those mortgage payments.

But when you keel over and those endo morphines ar finally released, you/your property and any savings that are above a certain figure, are put in a big blender and 40% of the juice gets sent down that same old hole again.

Therefore, I consider it fair hunting to try and beat the tax man from at least the graveyard. And I would like to leave my nearest and dearest a little more if possible.

With some introductory research, the Cayman Islands are under pressure, and Portugal for us euro's are supposedly the cheapest INH payers in Europe (can't say I'm aware of where switzerland is here). There are also trusts, which although good, can be a little limited.

My first question is, how does it work with Joint accounts here and abroad? Can you leave untaxable monies this way to friends and family?

Secondly, is it possible to set up your own "outside of international waters" account or trust which isn't affected by any national INH taxation

Finally, what of Switzerland and is there anything you recommend I should look into? Perhaps a large paypal transfer :P?

Many thanks
Pablo

Hi Pablo,

there are many types of Trust legally available to help defeat Inheritance Taxes, including those that can exempt capital after 7 years and still allow withdrawals annually.

There are combinations of Trust coupled with an insurance that would effectively negate the effect IHT immediatly, but a lot depends on the details of your position and estate as well as the type of Will you have.

You do need a specialist Independant Financial Adviser that works in this area because there are many IFA's who only know a little about Trusts but not enough about this whole complex subject.

As you have already seen from replies, IHT will depend on domicility but if you are UK domiciled, don't give up hope as this problem can be tackled in more ways than one.

Sam