Mine don't (they don't live here), and yeah, we need an inheritance cap and all loopholes closed.
Inheritance cap? There is already inheritance tax why the need for a cap? Inheritance tax was introduced to help redistribute wealth from the richest elsewhere.
As for closing loopholes that isn't as easy or straight forward as just saying so. The only loophole I know of is the trust system where it's placed in a trust to be passed on. I'm not sure exactly how they work but their are tax implications which arise from putting assets into a trust and tax returns required to be submitted every year and further tax implications every tenth anniversary. It's not as if you out it in a trust and avoid all taxes. Plus there are further costs involved of running and administering a trust and also once you out assets into a trust they are no longer your personal property.
WHY CREATE A TRUST?
Trusts may be used for a great number of different purposes, and can be structured to suit the particular circumstances of the settlor and the beneficiaries. The more common uses of trusts
– to hold the assets for minors or persons who are physically or mentally incapable;
– to protect the assets against those beneficiaries with a tendency to spend;
– to attend to the succession of the assets on the settlor’s death;
– to provide a level of asset protection for beneficiaries who may become bankrupt or divorced;
– to provide for charitable purposes or objects;
– to provide for confidentiality;
– to assist with tax planning;
– to hold pension funds and insurance policies.
So if you simply removed trusts you would be disadvantaging all the people who use them for other reasons than tax planning.
If you put your home into a trust it's then subject to capital gains tax for instance whereas if it weren't in a trust your main residence doesn't attract CGT when sold. So there are also downsides to a trust and therefore they aren't as straightforward as one may think they are in terms of reducing tax as they increase taxes elsewhere.
This isn't a loophole it was made law in the 12th century as a means of protecting land assets. It was done on purpose. It's not a grey area in which people operate it's fully legal and the intention of the legislation on which it operates on.
Inheritance thresholds are already far too low IMO. I mean £325k isn't a lot when the average house price alone is £250k.
So you work your whole life paying taxes. You happen to have bought a decent home in a decent area and over your life it's increased in value very well to the point it's worth 10 times what you paid for it. Now when you die your kids won't be able to keep it because everything over the threshold is taxed at 40%. So you need to sell the house to pay the bill even though it's bought and paid for.
Someone could quite easily live in a home worth circa £750k to £1m and not have more than say £20k in cash in the bank. Everything they earned was ploughed into the home and it just so happens to be now worth a lot of money.
I believe that the threshold should be 20 times the average wage per parent. So more than double what the current thresholds are.
That means yeah multi millionaires will rightfully pay inheritance tax however those that just so happened to do okay and worked hard but aren't stinking rich aren't screwed over upon their deaths.
There is a line and I believe the line currently is far too low. However those that won't receive much of an inheritance will obviously be biased the other way.
