Another Inheritance Tax question

Mrs_pbradley936

sloughflint wrote:

Not quite as far as I have come to understand things. The surviving spouse takes out a loan (albeit a free one) for the value of the deceased's half share and therefore "owns" the property not the children. The loan and surviving spouse as sole owner are registered at Land Registry,I think. So the children can't bully as such as it's not their home. The purpose of the exercise just being to reduce the size of the remaining spouse's estate on his/her death as the loan has to be repaid at that point.I hope that's right.

Yes, I think you are right but we have other property in addition to our home and so we have put as tenants in common or whatever the phrase is. Myhusband just wanted to be absolutely sure that our home would be mine or his and that no fancy speaking lawyer would be able to evict us from our own home. If we did not have other property our children would not be benefitting from the IHT allowance. Sorry folks but that is the way he sees it and it is our house!

Tiggs_2

sloughflint wrote:

So the children can't bully as such as it's not their home.

no...but if they are trustees of the trust holding the loan then whats to stop them enforcing repayment of that loan?

none of this is as simple as it sounds (or people selling the Wills make it sound)

margaretclare

'Bullying' can come in many forms. 'Emotional blackmail' is another way of putting it. 'Oh dear, I've still got student loans to pay off and I'll never get on the property ladder....'

Am I being unduly cynical?

Margaret

Mrs_pbradley936

It is only thanks to Tiggs posting on another thread a couple of weeks ago that my husband considered the tenants in common what have you for another property. So thank you Tiggs. In fact just had our wills signed and witnessed today. They needed to be done anyway because the last were made about 20 years ago.

Tiggs_2

glad to help.

Jake'sGran

pbradley936 wrote:

It is only thanks to Tiggs posting on another thread a couple of weeks ago that my husband considered the tenants in common what have you for another property. So thank you Tiggs. In fact just had our wills signed and witnessed today. They needed to be done anyway because the last were made about 20 years ago.

I assume from what has gone before that these were wills to mitigate IHT.
Tiggs has given me food for thought in the past so that I now no longer wish to leave my half of the house to my daughter if I should die first, which is the most likely scenario due to poor heart health. I have had quotations of between £400 to £600 from solicitors but my very big problem is that my OH really does not want to know about all this and if we were to discuss it together with a solicitor it would become chaotic and take up a lot of (expensive) time. Sounds crazy I know but my OH likes the idea of my going alone to decide on the terms of the will providing it is fair to both children and then explain what it all means before he signs it. We would need to use the nil rate bands as mentioned before. What to do, what to do. Rather sorry I was interested in investing now!

elliebean_2

Jake'sGran wrote:

I assume from what has gone before that these were wills to mitigate IHT.
Tiggs has given me food for thought in the past so that I now no longer wish to leave my half of the house to my daughter if I should die first, which is the most likely scenario due to poor heart health. I have had quotations of between £400 to £600 from solicitors but my very big problem is that my OH really does not want to know about all this and if we were to discuss it together with a solicitor it would become chaotic and take up a lot of (expensive) time. Sounds crazy I know but my OH likes the idea of my going alone to decide on the terms of the will providing it is fair to both children and then explain what it all means before he signs it. We would need to use the nil rate bands as mentioned before. What to do, what to do. Rather sorry I was interested in investing now!

I'm afraid you can't just give instructions to a solicitor or will writer for someone else's Will (even if it is your spouse and they say they agree to it) without them being present. Your OH will have to be present during the instruction taking session.

Mrs_pbradley936

Jake'sgran in view of what elliebean has just said I think you and your husband need to discuss the matter in depth so that when you go to instruct the solicitor you will both be saying the same thing. It will cost a lot of money to be having a chat in the solicitor's office but nothing indoors! I wrote down everything I wanted and the solicitor said "yes fine," or "no please consider xyz". Anyway we have got "mirror wills" which mean that they are the same. I think that if your main asset is the house you are living in AND you trust your children then you will have to go down the tenants in common route if you want the children to pay less tax. Remember that you will not benefit by doing this your children will.

margaretclare

Jake'sGran wrote:

Rather sorry I was interested in investing now!

Why?

Margaret

Jake'sGran

elliebean wrote:

I'm afraid you can't just give instructions to a solicitor or will writer for someone else's Will (even if it is your spouse and they say they agree to it) without them being present. Your OH will have to be present during the instruction taking session.

Yes, I rather thought this would be the case. To be honest, the whole thing is getting me down. I am now considering reducing my capital by making payments to the mortgages of my two children.