Gifts and IHT

Spivved1987

Do the limits on gifting only apply if the estate reaches the IHT threshold?

Being a northern home owner, the value of the house is only about £200,000 (but it's a nice house:)) and maybe £70,000 in cash and investments. Therefore unless I win the lottery my estate will get nowhere near the threshold. Am I therefore free to gift my children any amounts of cash I wish, and not limited to the £3,000 per annum?

Keep_pedalling

No one is limited to £3,000, that is just the amount you can gift per year that immediately falls out of your estate. Sums over that value are subject to the 7 year rule, which means your estate is taxed as though you still had that money if you die within 7 years of the gift. Live longer than that and it is no longer taxable.

Your estate is well below the IHT threshold, but you should still document any gifts over your allowance, to make things easier for your executor when the time come.

The only other issue you should be concerned about is deliberate depreciation of assets so if you gave all your current savings away, and later needed means tested benefits or care, you would be treated as though you still had those savings.

Spivved1987

Thanks for this. It confirms what I thought, and I have taken the DDOA rules into account. I am not giving all my savings away, but it may be that I will exceed £3,000 in a given year eg house deposit for children.