News from April 2019

When couples have young children ie teenagers and pre-teens it is always better to be safe rather than sorry when it comes to their Wills. This is because it is simply impossible to know at that age whether children are likely to be sensible with money when they get to 18, 21 or 25, the common trigger ages of inheritance. Certainly 25 is a much more sensible age for inheritance than 18 but it may still not be the right age, especially if either a lot of money is involved or the child is still pursuing the follies of youth.

Farmers are very well treated by the IHT rules and farming is the only type of business where the proprietor can claim an exemption from IHT on their home.  However, farmers are notoriously poor at keeping records and there are a number of pitfalls which need to be avoided if the farm is to be passed smoothly down to the next generation without adverse IHT or CGT consequences.