Blog
2025 in review: Under construction - Tax investigations
Krishna Mahajan
18 December 2018
Inheritance Gifts, Hotchpot and Double Portions. Do children have a right to be treated equally?
Sibling concern over equal treatment can linger well into middle age and beyond; it reveals itself after a parent’s death or during their old age through arguments over who has had what and who’s going to get what. We’re not legally obliged to leave our estate to our children in equal shares or, indeed to leave them anything at all.
6 December 2018
Inheritance Tax - why do so many fall into the 'Gift With Reservation of Benefit' trap?
Saving Inheritance Tax (IHT) on death by making a gift and surviving by seven years is standard tax planning sanctioned by statute. However, if you make a gift but ‘reserve a benefit’ in the property given, it will still be brought into charge on death, regardless of how long you survive.
14 November 2018
New probate fees – stealth death tax for the middle classes
Despite overwhelming opposition, the government has set a date for a new stealth death ‘tax’ aimed at bereaved families.
17 September 2018
£6m gift for son of woman with dementia
In the recent judgment of PBC v JMA and others, Judge Hilder authorised an application by an attorney to make gifts from his mother’s estate in excess of £7m, including £6m to himself.
31 August 2018
Minor children and reasonable financial provision
The Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 (“the 1975 Act”) enables a child of the deceased to make a claim against his or her estate provided that they can show that they were financially dependent on the deceased and that the deceased did not make adequate provision for them in their will (or by an intestacy).
