I really don’t care! That could certainly be an answer to this important question.
After all in order for your estate to pay any Inheritance Tax you will have to be dead and it may well be that you simply don’t care.
It may be that your children and grandchildren or significant other parties are going to inherit far more from you than you ever did/will and if they can’t get by on that substantial amount – well that’s just tough!
Or you may take an entirely different view and think to yourself “I have worked incredibly hard to save and invest and the thought of the HMRC having not only some of my money when I am dead but potentially the largest share just makes me so angry!!”
You might see these as polarised views and I think that is a fair view.
In my experience people are either very upset by the prospect of paying Inheritance Tax or simply don’t feel that they should over worry about it.
Either view in my opinion has its merits.
Sometimes when the first group understands the cost associated with good inheritance planning they quickly become fully paid up members of the second group.
It can be simply the case that giving away a significant part of your estate whilst living, to avoid inheritance tax when you are dead, is not possible, perhaps you need that money for your own benefit.
But there are strategies that can be adopted to minimise Inheritance Tax and they don’t have to cost a fortune to implement.
When you think about it with Inheritance tax on chargeable assets being a flat 40% that can mean (particularly in areas of high property value) a quite sizeable chunk of money going to HMRC. It’s well worth finding out if you can do something about it.
