Inheritance Tax

[DodgyAgent]

I agree. I got really incensed yesterday when one of the news progs interviwed someone complaining about having to pay IHT on his dad's (slightly premature death[1]) insurance payout.

This was cash FFS, not a house that (some will argue) has sentimental value, and there he was complaining that because of IHT he only got four hundred thousand pounds in his grubby hands instead of five hundred thousand pounds!

[1] when my mum died early, I'd have given every penny that I had to have her back, some people obviously think that money is more important.

tim

I have seen just what happens when families squabble over inheritance. They are like hyenas. If they want the money that badly then they should go out and work for it. HM govt should take the lot as long as they reduce taxes at the bottom end of the wages spectrum, otherwise give it all to charity.

[TheFaQQer]

I agree. I got really incensed yesterday when one of the news progs interviwed someone complaining about having to pay IHT on his dad's (slightly premature death[1]) insurance payout.

This was cash FFS, not a house that (some will argue) has sentimental value, and there he was complaining that because of IHT he only got four hundred thousand pounds in his grubby hands instead of five hundred thousand pounds!

[1] when my mum died early, I'd have given every penny that I had to have her back, some people obviously think that money is more important.

tim

That's why I have an insurance policy on my parents lives - it covers the inheritance tax, but pays out to me instead of their estate.

Any half-decent estate planning gets round it all, anyway.

[_V_]

I'm not sure that welfare parasites are quite the same as people living off their own money. For a start, I don't pay for the latter.

As for my estate, I earned it, I paid tax on it. I should be able to do with it as I please, shouldn't I? I thought that was a basic principle of a free world.

Reminds me of the Harry Enfield's Old Gits when they realise their money is going to go to their children, so they burn it.

Children in Need? They can bloody stay in need!

[TheFaQQer]

Unfortunately, they've just changed the rules on getting a power of attorney, too!

My parents are in Madiera this week, then Antigua in February, then France for Easter, somewhere else in the summer...

SKIERs - Spending Kids Inheritance EaRly.

[Mailman]

So where is the money going to come from to allow them to do this?

The government seemed to be doing ok without this tax in the first place?

Mailman

[threaded]

A masterstroke from the Conservatives on IHT, one of the most sinister and unfair taxes in Britain, and a perfectly judged figure of £1 million.
I fear it is too little too late for influencing the next general election, but could be a decider for the one after that (by which time the number of people affected will be millions rather than hundreds of thousands).

£1mil will be fsck all by the time the tories get in next.

[shoes]

I have seen just what happens when families squabble over inheritance. They are like hyenas. If they want the money that badly then they should go out and work for it. HM govt should take the lot as long as they reduce taxes at the bottom end of the wages spectrum, otherwise give it all to charity.

Don't tar all families with the same brush. I'm sure some do squabble over inheritance, but some do not. Some respect the wishes of those that have died and use the money to have a more secure and less stressful existance for themselves and their children, as the deceased has wished. I would bet that providing a secure future for your family is a great motivator in creating wealth in the first place - would you like to have that incentive taken away?

If it is the choice of the person that made the money not to leave it to their children and give it to charity or whatever because they don't think 'free' money will do their offspring any good then they can do that. They should have the CHOICE. Tax inheritance and the choice of what happens to a proportion of YOUR money when you die is taken away from YOU.

There are two sides to this. Stop envying those that might recieve it and instead pity those that are unable to do what they wish with it when they die.

[wendigo100]

Yes - you have.

However, once you die, it ceases to be yours. The beneficiaries of your estate have not earned it, have not paid tax on it, and it isn't theirs.

So that's the wife and kids out on the street then!

I don't think that's a very sensible thing to say, if you don't mind me saying so. For a start, my wife spent a lot of time out of work looking after the kids. When I die in your world she'd lose the house, my main asset, because it isn't hers. My kids couldn't keep my company going, because it isn't theirs.

Your world could end up in utter chaos where nobody would bother building up assets, or a company, because they would all end up getting snatched away in the end.

The beneficiaries of my estate are those who I earned it for, not you, the government, or the feckless bugger up the road who pisses his wages up the wall every week.

[GreenerGrass]

LOL @ the idea of lazy students spending their inheritance on gap years. People are living longer, most "kids" will be not far off retirement age themselves before they get any benefit.
It's hardly a fast track to a life of leisure, it just means you don't have to worry about your pensions being robbed, a stockmarket crash wiping out your own funds, or requiring state assistance.

[TheFaQQer]

I don't think that's a very sensible thing to say, if you don't mind me saying so.

Of course I don't mind.

For a start, my wife spent a lot of time out of work looking after the kids. When I die in your world she'd lose the house, my main asset, because it isn't hers. My kids couldn't keep my company going, because it isn't theirs.

Your world could end up in utter chaos where nobody would bother building up assets, or a company, because they would all end up getting snatched away in the end.

The beneficiaries of my estate are those who I earned it for, not you, the government, or the feckless bugger up the road who pisses his wages up the wall every week.

I think, perhaps, that you've read more into my post than I was intending. I'm not saying that you shouldn't be able to leave your estate to who you want to. However, your argument was that you've paid tax on it, therefore it's yours to do what you want with it. Your beneficiaries have not paid tax on it, though, which is why I believe that if the estate is over a certain threshold, they should pay tax on it.

The world you describe is not "your world" - it's the world that we live in under this government, and under any government that has inheritance tax. There is a threshold, over which tax has to be paid. I'm not in any way suggesting that people should be turfed out on the streets - your argument was you've paid tax on it, mine is that the beneficiaries have not and therefore should.

The Tory policy of taking some from the rich to give to the comfortably well off doesn't really hit a chord with me. It makes no difference to anyone who is smart enough to take out some degree of insurance or estate planning, it's yet another way of trying to grab headlines with something where the sums don't add up.