A series of articles highlighting key areas that affect taxpayers and practitioners involved with inheritance tax and estates and identifying opportunities to mitigate inheritance tax.
Inheritance Tax & Relief for Falls in Value (Part 1)
In the current economic climate reliefs that reduce the amount of inheritance tax payable where assets have fallen in value may be of particular interest to taxpayers and their advisors.
Lifetime Transfers
Where an asset is transferred during lifetime and the transferor does not survive 7 years from the date of the gift, inheritance tax at death will normally be calculated based on the value as at the date of the gift.
However relief is available where:
- The asset is retained by the transferee (or their spouse/civil partner) and the value at death is lower than the value at the date of the gift, or
- The asset is sold by the transferee (or their spouse/civil partner) at a loss prior to the date of death and the sale does not fall foul of anti-avoidance provisions aimed at transfers not at arm’s length.
The rules apply to most types of assets except wasting chattels (tangible movable property with a wasting life of no more than 50 years such as plant and machinery).
The relief is available in respect of inheritance tax on both failed Potentially Exempt Transfers (PETs) and the additional inheritance tax payable on death in respect of Chargeable Lifetime Transfers (CLTs).
However, the relief does not affect the original computation (i.e. in the case of a CLT there will be no change to the computation of the lifetime tax payable at the date of gift) or the cumulative total for calculating the available nil rate band on subsequent gifts and the death estate.
The claim must be made by person that is liable to pay the inheritance tax in respect of the PET/CLT which will normally be the donee.