Should you be worried about the PROBATE FEE hike?
The government has recently announced substantial increases in the fee to obtain the grant needed to take control of a deceased’s estate. The new fees, payable to the probate registry and due to take effect in April 2019, amounts to…
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Stagnant property market hits IHT tax take
The amount of inheritance tax (IHT) paid year-on-year has fallen for the first time in a decade, according to figures from HMRC. A series of weak months from January to June 2018, probably caused by the stalled property market, saw…
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Inheritance tax avoidance investigations rise as HMRC cracks down on estate undervaluations
HM Revenue and Customs is increasingly targeting estates it believes have undervalued residential property to avoid Inheritance Tax bills, according to an accountancy firm. HMRC investigated 5,400 estates for underpayment of inheritance tax (IHT) last year. This is up 5%…
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Latest Farming Dispute Demonstrates the Importance of Written Partnership Agreements
In the latest farming dispute to emerge from the courts (Wild v Wild, 2018 EWHC 2197 Ch), a judge has ruled that a £1.65m farm and bungalow should be included in the deceased’s estate rather than part of a farming…
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Get it today!!!
If you have not read ‘The Absolute Essence of Inheritance Tax Planning’ then this is probably the best time to get it for three reasons. Firstly, after just under 18 months in publication in remains an Amazon #1 Bestseller in…
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Many trustees appear to have forgotten ten-year anniversary charges
HMRC have recently released details of the value of assets held in UK taxpaying discretionary trusts at the ten yearly charge date, and have confirmed that information for more recent years is deemed to be incomplete because of delays by…
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Holiday lets are entitled to IIHT Business Property Relief if they provide ‘exceptional service’
A furnished holiday letting business qualified for business property relief (BPR) from inheritance tax because it provided guests with an ‘exceptional level of service and amenities’, and so did not consist wholly or mainly of making or holding investments. So…
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No Inheritance Tax deduction for rent liability in Execs of Estate of D S Campbell Dec’d v HMRC
In Execs of Estate of D S Campbell Dec’d v HMRC [2018] TC06389, the First-Tier Tribunal held that outstanding rents on a lease related to the deceased’s business, were deductible in calculating the value of the Business Property Relief qualifying business…
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Estate Planning: Farmer succeeds in proprietary estoppel claim against his own son!!!
In yet another family farm dispute, and there have been many recently, farmer JM Gee has made a successful proprietary estoppel claim on £8 million of farm assets, on the basis that his father assured him for 30 years that…
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Estates may be undervalued as digital assets potentially go undeclared
Executors could be unwittingly undervaluing a deceased’s estate by failing to declare unsuspected digital assets such as online bank accounts, Paypal accounts, cryptocurrency, ownership of internet domains and so on, says the Institute of Legacy Management. Its response to the…
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