Advice on £20,000 gift please

kramii

Hi. After my Father passed away last year, my Mother moved down-sized into a smaller house, and generously gave us (myself, wife and son) a one-off gift of £20,000, in accordance to my Father's wishes. In order to keep my Mum's finances simple, I immediately paid the cash into my current account. Unfortunately, I am a bit of a tax novice, so I don't really know where to begin dealing with something like this from a tax POV.

I have several questions:

• Firstly, what tax(es) apply to a gift like this?
• Is there a way that my Mother could (could have) give us a gift like this tax free / reduced tax?
• If I give the money back, and define it as a "loan", will this have any tax implications?

Our basic tax situation is that I am salaried (~£35K / year), but my wife has no significant income of her own. Ideally, we will use the cash to pay off part of our £50K mortgage.

Many thanks.

jem16

There is no gift tax in the UK - your mother is perfectly able to give you a gift of £20k with no tax implications to yourself or herself.

The only thing that might enter into it is Inheritance Tax liability on your mother's estate if she dies within 7 years of making this gift and if she is over the IHT threshold in the first place.

kramii

Wow, thanks. That really is helpful - and quite a weight off my mind.

hethmar

Dont say its a loan - causes more complications for your mum. Just enjoy the money like she and your dad wanted - no need to declare it.

dzug1

kramii wrote: »

Hi. After my Father passed away last year, my Mother moved down-sized into a smaller house, and generously gave us (myself, wife and son) a one-off gift of £20,000, in accordance to my Father's wishes.

How was this wish expressed? If it was in a will then it isn't a gift at all, but a 'proper inheritance'.

kramii

dzug1 wrote: »

How was this wish expressed? If it was in a will then it isn't a gift at all, but a 'proper inheritance'.

Thanks for raising this: it isn't something that would have occured to me.

Now, I don't think it was in his will, but I'm not absolutely certain. Truth be told, my mother may just have said that it was my Father's wish so that we couldn't refuse the cash (I can't help feeling that he and Mum worked hard for it all their lives, so Mum should be the one to benefit from it). That said, it is the kind of thing he would have wanted; my Father was always generous towards us. So, it is possible that there is something about this in his will, but unlikely.

I'll have to find out (without offending my Mother).