Millennials are likely to enjoy the biggest "inheritance boom"

[dl8860]

I believe in a meritocracy but NOT in inheritance tax.

The inherited wealth comes from the parents' merit - which was taxed when earned.

It's entirely rational to want to use your talents to not only provide for yourself but also for your children.

I might be convinced that a portion of inheritance should go in a LISA or something though... maybe.

I agree it's completely rational to want to provide for your children. But that is rewarding individuals disproportionately through no merit (key word here) of their own. It's about the least meritocratic sentiment possible (beyond random enforced changes in wealth) to want zero inheritance tax. It's literally a random assignment of wealth amongst individuals of a similar generation.

disclaimer, I probably will inherit something, and I'm not saying I think inheritance tax should be any higher than it is, but that zero inheritance tax is just vastly un-meritocratic.

 

[Hotwired]

I wasn't bashing anyone really, if stating giving away your assets before your death to avoid IHT is tax avoidance then yes I'm guilty. I'm sorry if I made you feel bad about it. If it's any concellation I honestly couldn't give a ****, it's a drop in the ocean. I'm pretty sure David Cameron is guilty of it so it's not like everyone isn't doing it.

You sounded more honest with the first reply where you were happy someone fell for the bait of replying to you. This new reply is just guilty yet insincere talk because I called you on it.

I have no issue with IHS or how it does and doesn't work but I obviously don't like getting pulled into a position to be smeared as immoral and therefore accused of being in no position to talk about related issues.

 

[panthro]

My parents divorced, my mum got nearly everything. My dad rebuilt, bought a house in China where he was working, married a Chinese woman, he died a while ago so her and her sprogs got the lot. I have always lived my life never expecting a penny of inheritance from anyone. I couldn't imagine being one of those people who live their lives waiting for others to die.

 

[D.P.]

Not at all a fan of inheritance tax as it exists in the UK as it is very much a death tax. Really, the tax should be on the person inheriting, as a form.kf capital gains tax. If someone leaves all.theor money to a registered charity in their will there should be no tax, if someone has 5 children and splits their estate equally then each recipient should be taxed at their individual 1/5th share, and if one of those children decides to give to charity then that portion should also be tax exempt. Moreover the inheritance tax should take in to account their current financial situation.


We should also be looking at property and wealth taxes rather than inheritance tax to better prevent accumulated wealth. Scrap council tax and have 1.5% annual property tax on all housing, cars and boats etc. 0.5% tax on capital over 500k or so

 

[Rifte]

All of my parents' assets are tied up in trust for my brother and myself.

We passed the exclusion period a number of years ago so there is no risk of the taxman getting his hands on any of it.

I will be doing the same for my children as well when I get around to it.

Is it in the spirit of the system? If its within the realms of the law then people absolutely should take advantage of it.The moment it is made illegal, it should be stopped.

For those people whinging about public services going down the pan because of tax avoidance, my question is this. Would you like to give more than you are legally obliged to? If you had the option to increase your tax percentage by just 5% on the hypothetical basis that ALL of it would be used efficiently and effectively on public services.....would you? If you could make a contribution every week knowing that it would pay for an operation within the NHS or make another bed available....would you?

I am not sure many people would.

Unfortunately we are all encouraged to look after ourselves because seemingly no one else will.

 

[englishpremier]

We should also be looking at property and wealth taxes rather than inheritance tax to better prevent accumulated wealth. Scrap council tax and have 1.5% annual property tax on all housing, cars and boats etc. 0.5% tax on capital over 500k or so

1.5% tax on boats? Why? Council tax is supposedly to pay for public services where you live. So houseboats, in a permanent location might make sense, but not cruisers, or those keeping a boat in a marina. The latter are already paying for a mooring, which the company that owns is already paying business rates on.

Then you've got boats that UK registered yet aren't even in the UK. Why should these pay a random tax to the UK government? They've already paid their registration. Then what about foreign boats that are in UK waters. Someone could register their vessel in Netherlands, but spend years sailing around the UK.

 

[Roar87]

You sounded more honest with the first reply where you were happy someone fell for the bait of replying to you. This new reply is just guilty yet insincere talk because I called you on it.

I have no issue with IHS or how it does and doesn't work but I obviously don't like getting pulled into a position to be smeared as immoral and therefore accused of being in no position to talk about related issues.

The thing is you're taking it personally where as I was speaking in general terms. Lots of people give their possessions away early on to avoid IHT. I wondered whether people who do that had considered that it was essentially tax avoidance. You're obviously massively offended though, you clearly don't view it as tax avoidance and resent the implication.

 

[Hotwired]

The thing is you're taking it personally where as I was speaking in general terms. Lots of people give their possessions away early on to avoid IHT. I wondered whether people who do that had considered that it was essentially tax avoidance. You're obviously massively offended though, you clearly don't view it as tax avoidance and resent the implication.

You're being obtuse if you're not seeing that I'm actually irritated at being set up in that I gave an answer and the first thing you did was give a backhanded reply.

No it's not clear enough, lets add what you said to make sure there's correct context:

So just tax avoidance then, fair enough, I assume you'll never complain about anyone not paying their taxes or the state of public services then.

 

[Roar87]

You're being obtuse if you're not seeing that I'm actually irritated at being set up in that I gave an answer and the first thing you did was give a backhanded reply.

I didn't quote you or deliberately ask you personally to respond, I said I was interested in how people's views were shaped by whether they were due to receive inheritance or not. Then you said that your parents had already planned to avoid paying the tax basically and you haven't even stated your views on it in this thread. Your post seemed like a subtle brag if I'm being brutal and you don't like that I called you out on it. There was no malice of forethought in my original post though.

 

[Hotwired]

I didn't quote you or deliberately ask you personally to respond, I said I was interested in how people's views were shaped by whether they were due to receive inheritance or not. Then you said that your parents had already planned to avoid paying the tax basically and you haven't even stated your views on it in this thread. Your post seemed like a subtle brag if I'm being brutal and you don't like that I called you out on it. There was no malice of forethought in my original post though.

You invited a response and I gave you one in good faith. Yet you gave me a snarky reply as if that was the whole idea. There are only 2 options when it comes to IHS and that's die under the limit or over it. Somehow giving you one of the two obvious answers resulted in you showing off the chip on your shoulder.

I also have given my view on IHS very clearly on this page.

Who in their right mind would reply to your question with anything not in line with your now obvious stance if they realised your intentions, a complete waste of time in all.

 

[Roar87]

Who in their right mind would reply to your question with anything not in line with your now obvious stance if they realised your intentions, a complete waste of time in all.

My intention was to know whether people were due to receive large sums of inheritance money or not; not whether their parents were actively avoiding it. I basically assumed people due to inherit large sums wouldn't be in favour of IHT, and people due to basically inherit nothing would be in favour of it.

I'm interested in how people's views on inheritance tax are shaped by what they will actually inherit themselves.

 

[Mr Badger]

For those people whinging about public services going down the pan because of tax avoidance, my question is this. Would you like to give more than you are legally obliged to? If you had the option to increase your tax percentage by just 5% on the hypothetical basis that ALL of it would be used efficiently and effectively on public services.....would you? If you could make a contribution every week knowing that it would pay for an operation within the NHS or make another bed available....would you?

I am not sure many people would.

Unfortunately we are all encouraged to look after ourselves because seemingly no one else will.

Yes, I am absolutely in favour of higher taxation if the money is spent wisely on making society better e.g.the Nordic model.

 

[dl8860]

Yes, I am absolutely in favour of higher taxation if the money is spent wisely on making society better e.g.the Nordic model.

Big difference between being in favour of higher taxation in general, and being willing to put forward more of your own cash while everyone else pays the same.

 

[Mr Badger]

Big difference between being in favour of higher taxation in general, and being willing to put forward more of your own cash while everyone else pays the same.

Well that is a very contrived way to look at it though. Not taking active steps to avoid tax is hardly the same as deliberately volunteering to give away your money.

 

[Hotwired]

My intention was to know whether people were due to receive large sums of inheritance money or not; not whether their parents were actively avoiding it. I basically assumed people due to inherit large sums wouldn't be in favour of IHT, and people due to basically inherit nothing would be in favour of it.

Retrospectively that has sense to it but it wasn't how you replied.

If you said "And what is your view on IHT" it would have been considerably less antagonistic and actually get a reasonable reply.

I have no issue with IHT or how it does and doesn't work

This view applies to a vast range of rules which I have no say about but follow anyway.

 

[dl8860]

I don't disagree, but you weren't exactly answering Rifte's point.

 

[krooton]

My parent's estate is worth a million, split between my brother and me.

Sounds great, until I tell you that million is in Rand and is only worth £60k

 

[Transcisite]

Yes... also millennials will be on of the last generations that will still know what it was like to be around children.

 

[D.P.]

1.5% tax on boats? Why? Council tax is supposedly to pay for public services where you live. So houseboats, in a permanent location might make sense, but not cruisers, or those keeping a boat in a marina. The latter are already paying for a mooring, which the company that owns is already paying business rates on.

Then you've got boats that UK registered yet aren't even in the UK. Why should these pay a random tax to the UK government? They've already paid their registration. Then what about foreign boats that are in UK waters. Someone could register their vessel in Netherlands, but spend years sailing around the UK.

It is a property tax, which by definition taxes property. Boats can be quite high value so taxing them is effective. In theory property tax could apply to anything such as your TV but the values are too low for the overhead so having a short list of high value items such as houses, cars and boats makes sense. This is what most counties do.

The tax is random, it is on property which makes much more sense than on income for example.

 

[chroniclard]

Parents have been giving us help(cash) for the last 15-20 years to reduce the amount of inheritance tax. I do believe its rather high though and will still stand to pay a substantial amount when they pass on.