Dad might be buying me a house

xylophone

It appears that your mother died over two years ago  so a  Deed of Variation would not be possible.
https://www.gov.uk/alter-a-will-after-a-death
Any changes to the will must be completed within 2 years of the death.

In terms of IHT,, it seems that your mother left all her assets to your father.
Therefore his estate would potentially have his nil rate band, (£325,000)  his  Main Residence  NRB (£175.000),  her (transferable) NRB and her (transferable) MRNRB.

A gift to you of £50,000 - £100,000 would   reduce his NRB by that amount if he died within seven years of making the gift.

With regard to taper relief, this is widely misunderstood -  see here
https://moneytothemasses.com/tax/inheritance-tax-iht-taper-relief-on-gifts-explained

Your father may make you a gift of any amount - the £3000 applies to "exempted gifts" - see
https://www.gov.uk/inheritance-tax/gifts

With regard to "deprivation of assets" https://www.ageuk.org.uk/globalassets/age-uk/documents/factsheets/fs40_deprivation_of_assets_in_social_care_fcs.pdf

""Deprivation of assets" means you have intentionally decreased your overall assets in order to reduce the amount you contribute towards the cost of care services provided by the local authority. The local authority must show that you knew you may need care and support in the future when you carried out this action."

There is no obvious case her that the OP's father is deliberately giving away money in order to increase or obtain benefits -  it would appear that he is gifting money that he can well afford in order to help his son buy a home.

Many, many parents  do this for their children - it would be absurd to suggest that every such gift will be challenged on the basis of DoA. Nobody would ever make a gift or be able to mitigate the effects of IHT by  taking advantage of the perfectly legitimate PET rules.

Were this a case of the father's being  very elderly, frail, of very modest means, only asset his own home etc then the case would be rather different.

badger555

xylophone said:

It appears that your mother died over two years ago  so a  Deed of Variation would not be possible.
https://www.gov.uk/alter-a-will-after-a-death
Any changes to the will must be completed within 2 years of the death.

In terms of IHT,, it seems that your mother left all her assets to your father.
Therefore his estate would potentially have his nil rate band, (£325,000)  his  Main Residence  NRB (£175.000),  her (transferable) NRB and her (transferable) MRNRB.

A gift to you of £50,000 - £100,000 would   reduce his NRB by that amount if he died within seven years of making the gift.

With regard to taper relief, this is widely misunderstood -  see here
https://moneytothemasses.com/tax/inheritance-tax-iht-taper-relief-on-gifts-explained

Your father may make you a gift of any amount - the £3000 applies to "exempted gifts" - see
https://www.gov.uk/inheritance-tax/gifts

With regard to "deprivation of assets" https://www.ageuk.org.uk/globalassets/age-uk/documents/factsheets/fs40_deprivation_of_assets_in_social_care_fcs.pdf

""Deprivation of assets" means you have intentionally decreased your overall assets in order to reduce the amount you contribute towards the cost of care services provided by the local authority. The local authority must show that you knew you may need care and support in the future when you carried out this action."

There is no obvious case her that the OP's father is deliberately giving away money in order to increase or obtain benefits -  it would appear that he is gifting money that he can well afford in order to help his son buy a home.

Many, many parents  do this for their children - it would be absurd to suggest that every such gift will be challenged on the basis of DoA. Nobody would ever make a gift or be able to mitigate the effects of IHT by  taking advantage of the perfectly legitimate PET rules.

Were this a case of the father's being  very elderly, frail, of very modest means, only asset his own home etc then the case would be rather different.

many thanks for the detailed reply,only just seen it