Webcast Q & A about Inheritance Tax with Anne Young
Transcript of: An introduction to inheritance tax planning
Interviewer: Welcome to this Scottish Widows webcast. This is one of a series of webcasts that gets simple answers to simple questions on issues in finance that we’d all like to know a bit more about.
Today I’m joined by Anne Young, Scottish Widows tax guru, and Anne’s going to give us some straight answers to some questions about inheritance tax.
Anne, many people will think they don’t have enough assets to worry about inheritance tax.
Anne Young: Now, you might not think you’ve enough assets to be worried about inheritance tax, but a lot of us during our lifetime have got a lot of debts. We’ve got a mortgage or we owe people money, but a lot of these debts when you die are actually paid off, so on death on awful lot of us are worth an awful lot more than we actually think.
Interviewer: Now a lot of people watching or listening to this are going to think – I’m too young to worry about inheritance tax.
Anne Young: Well unfortunately that’s not quite right. Any of us could die at any time and we want to make sure that if we do die that our affairs are in order.
Interviewer: I might look at it and think ‘I can’t afford to give things away’.
Anne Young: In many ways good inheritance tax planning is not all about giving things away, it’s about putting your affairs in good order, making sure you’ve got a properly drafted will, and making sure that if there is an inheritance tax bill that there are enough funds available for your estate to actually pay it.
Interviewer: Now someone might say ‘I’ve given my house to my children already, so I don’t have to worry about inheritance tax do I?’
Anne Young: Oh yes, you do. An awful lot of people think this is a way of inheritance tax planning, just to give everything away. But, one of the rules for inheritance tax means that if you give something away, you can’t actually retain a benefit for yourself. If you’re continuing to live in your house, then I’m afraid you still have an inheritance tax problem.
Interviewer: And what if someone said ‘Well I’ve left everything to my spouse so IHT is nothing for me to worry about is it?’.
Anne Young: Well, you don’t have any immediate inheritance tax to pay if you leave everything to your spouse, but of course when you leave everything to your spouse then these assets will be in his or her estate when they die. So, of course there is an inheritance tax problem but just a wee bit further down the line.
Interviewer: Thanks Anne. And, if you want to know more just follow the links on this site. Thank you.
