Inheritance Tax - The Basics

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By Simon P Jennings

Many people do not understand what Inheritance Tax means, and in order to discuss about its essentials, we should be clear about its meaning. This tax is paid on the land of a person who has died.

The bar set for giving the inheritance tax, according to the standards of 2009-2010, was around 325,000. Inheritance Tax, also known as IHT, is also applicable on the gifts and trusts made by a person during his life; however, it is not implied on estates which do not amount up to the set standards.

Things like personal belongings, real estate, properties, savings, insurance policies, valuable items, retirement benefits are all combined together and called the estate, when it comes to inheritance tax.. The IHT is about 40% of the all the estate and is gauged after calculating all the belongings of a person.

October 2007 brought a slight change in the scenario. People, who come under the category of married couple or registered civil partners, can augment the margin conclusively regarding their estate, when their partner dies. As per the new standards set in the year 2009-2010, the amount can be as much as 650,000. It is the duty of the executors or personal representatives to transfer the unused inheritance tax margin or "nil rate bands" to the spouse or other civil partner after the death of the person.

The responsibility of paying the inheritance tax after the death of a person is always a question and depends upon the situation of the case. However, it is the person who is using the estate of the expired money who is responsible for paying the amount.

Assets that a person gifts to his relatives as a trust, or transfers them to trust, are liable for an inheritance tax to be paid by the relative who is the trustee of that asset. Although it is not very common but the person who has received a gift from the deceased has to pay the inheritance tax on it.

The inheritance tax is not applicable to any estate or asset, which does not comply up to the standard threshold. Such people are then not liable to pay the inheritance tax after receiving the gift. Even the gifts given under the UK group of charitable trust is free from paying IHT.

If a person manages to live for seven years after transferring estate as a gift to someone else, those assets shall be excluded from inheritance tax. In this case, the threshold will also not be considered. Gifts of 250 bucks shall also be inheritance tax-free and can be given to numerous people. If you are giving a part of your estate to someone as a wedding or civil partnership gift, then a certain amount of that gift will be excluded from the inheritance tax.

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