10% Death Tax.I expect they will be keen to value the holiday homes .

[Frederick]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article7026357.ece....

I want to pass on my holiday home to the children so they and the grandchildren can continue to use it as they do now....Looks if this tax comes about a big liabillity is what I will be leaving them ?

[pachapapa]

A very equitable solution to a very real problem. Deviously designed to soak the rich and subsidise the poor. All for it.[:D]

[cooperlola]

[quote user="Frederick"]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article7026357.ece....

I want to pass on my holiday home to the children so they and the grandchildren can continue to use it as they do now....Looks if this tax comes about a big liabillity is what I will be leaving them ?

[/quote]I'm afraid I treat all rumours of secret tax plans with several kilos of salt as elections approach!

However, one is bound to ask how any government plans to fund  care for the elderly as the aged population continues to grow. 

[Frederick]

[quote user="pachapapa"]A very equitable solution to a very real problem. Deviously designed to soak the rich and subsidise the poor. All for it.[:D][/quote] I think a few might just folllow the advice of that woman who won the pools "Spend Spend Spend " Tdays comments http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/162528/New-death-tax-for-all-shock

[Frederick]

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/162528/New-death-tax-for-all-shock     Oooops ..Sorry guys ..got that post wrong somehow !

[Quillan]

Your original quoted artical is an old version you can try

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article7056857.ece

Its a bit more up to date.

I like the Express comment about "It means people with an estate valued at £500,000 would find their relatives hit with a bill of £102,500 after their death", it makes it sound like the money is coming directly out of the relatives pocket when in fact its the first thing to come out of the estate before even the solicitors and executors fees/expenses are paid so it comes out of the dead persons pocket not theirs.

I can see the logic of the state wanting a contribution towards their expenses if you are in a state run old peoples but if you fund yourself in a private home then you shouldn't have to pay.

If you are of a reasonable age and are worried about the government grabbing money from your estate then perhaps you could investigate setting up a trust with your children as the trust managers. I'm no legal expert by far but it is something you could discuss and see if you can limit your tax liability on death.

[Richard51]

The day I need to go into a care home is the day I visit Dignitas (my family has already been instructed as to my wishes)...so I would object strongly to a tax on my estate that would fund other people's care.  The government already recharge the cost of care to anyone with assets of more than £23k so this tax would mean that anyone who has bothered to save would be paying twice. 

Mrs R51

[just john]

Twice! How many times? once to qualify, again on earnings, again on purchase, then Tax fonciere (and again if I sell) so I hope I've figured how to avoid it or go SKI-ing by then [:P]

[Frederick]

Mmmm I quite fancy one of those three wheel motor bikes Billy Connolly tours the world on !

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

I heard that in a couple of years time, inheritance laws would be under the foreign persons countries laws. Is that right?

Death tax is a joke anyway, the money has already been taxed before the items / property was bought. Should be scrapped imo.

[Swissie]

Here in Switzerland there is no inheritance tax for direct descendants - but if our kids have to pay 10% in UK- I'd say 'fair enough'. As Coops says, with more and more older people, and better healthcare provisions, money is needed in the coffers.

BTW Dignitas will not accept death tourism just because somebody has got to go into a OAP home- you'll have to find another solution, sorry Richard.

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

But surely people (in general) are already paying for their healthcare for their old age and so forth? I know the NHS etc is struggling for money, but perhaps the answer lies in mismanagement rather than just continually charging the people all the time for their mistakes? I mean, you can't do a thing without being taxed in some way as it is.

I think in Australia there is no death duty either. In the UK, I had to pay tax on anything over £250k I think, this was 11 years ago so it may have changed.

[Richard51]

[quote user="Swissie"]

BTW Dignitas will not accept death tourism just because somebody has got to go into a OAP home- you'll have to find another solution, sorry Richard.

[/quote]

There's more than one way of skinning a rabbit as the expression goes.  Over my dead body (literally) am I going into one of those places!

Mrs Richard51

Edit: I just checked the Dignitas website and it says that the service is available to those with an incurable or progressive illness.  I believe senile dementia would qualify as an incurable and progressive illness.  It would also be one that diminished the dignity of the sufferer.

[Gluestick]

As always the politicians play with both sound bites: and fiddling around the edges of the tax system.

Now the concept of taxing the rich to alleviate the lives of the poor as advocated in the People's Budget of 1909 remains a nice idea: mainly since the target of the Liberal minds led by Lloyd George, Winston Churchill (would you believe: who was by then a millionaire from his writing), Asquith etc, was intended to "Tax the rich as they've never been taxed before!" Redistribution of Wealth at its finest.........

Problem was and is that the rich simply employed the services of barristers, accountants and tax advisers and set up trusts and etc and preserved their wealth (As I pointed out on this forum recently).

Thus the only redistribution of wealth has been from the working class, really: and given to the feckless, the idle, the benefit fraudster and the hobblydehoy.

On this issue, however, perhaps worth recalling that it was Thatcher, of Call Me Dave's Tory Party (!!) who instituted sequestration of personal homes to fund care for the elderly (Reversed in Scotland BTW). And it was Thatcher too, who closed local authority care homes by the zillion: and encouraged her Doyen, "The Markets" to provide replacement facilities. Which are much more expensive! And paid for by the state. Which is why thee are so many multi-millionaire care and nursing homes owners waltzing around: and mainly moonlighting doctors and people with no experience in, knowledge of or interest in geriatric healthcare.

As already stated, we have all paid in advance for a raft of state benefits: which we now do not receive: furthermore, since younger workers are now expected to work until they are 67: and then 68 and then 70 before receiving any state pension benefit, government have it made. Plus, naturally, those who live continue to pay a raft of other taxes most times they buy anything: including electricity and gas: having paid tax on any private pension, savings etc already!

Additionally, it is worth reminding ourselves that life expectancy is greater for those with money. Those with nice fat private and occupational pensions live much longer and tend to be much healthier: whereas those at the lower income scales, like state pensioners, demonstrate much greater mortality.

Thus the scam is in effect Fiscal Euthanasia: make people work much longer: they contribute for far more years: and then quickly pop their clogs and are no longer a drain on the state!

There are ways around all this of course: carefully structured modalities which do include trusts etc. However they must be set-up well in advance and conform to certain specific elements of trust and estate law and tax regulation and interpretation:  A Settlor (The person or entity giving, gifting or selling an asset to a trust) must be disconnected thereafter. The gift etc cannot be "With Reservation": thus with a house, the Settlor cannot simply gift the house to a trust and continue to live there.(The Reserved right to occupy the house e.g.), Unless, they pay market rent to the trust: which is in fact another neat way to distribute financial assets over years, free of personal, capital gains and IH taxes.

That's a simple over-view: take professional advice.

 

[Richard51]

Beware of Lady Ingram Gluestick....

[Gluestick]

Tax treatment of Trusts was of course changed by the Finance Act 2006: and any competent professional practitioner would be creating a suitable beneficial or discretionary trust along such lines. In particular, the aspects of reservations.

Ingram was back in the late 1990s.

Course; the best way is to emigrate to Belize....................................

[Www]

[Swissie]

Believe me I am on your side- and think exactly the same way as you do. It was indeed very much part of our decision to move to Switzerland- where I am now a member of Exit. Senile dementia and Alzheimers are notoriously difficult for Dignitas or Exit to deal with, compared to other degenerative diseases or say, cancers, as these Associations have to interview patients to ensure they are of free and sound mind and not under duress. If you really are serious (as I definitely am) - please do more research as the situation is far from easy, I am sorry to say.

[Richard51]

Swissie, thanks for the information.  I think I'm probably being a little naive!  I'd be interested to know if there are any sources of information that you'd recommend.  I dread the thought of ending up like my grandmother and mother-in-law.

[Swissie]

www.exit-geneve.ch    it has an English section but sadly their services are only for Swiss citizens/residents. It is a hugely complex topic- and you are right, please excuse-me, but you are naive. It is just not as simple as that. Dignitas will only accept people who are of sound mind and clearly able to make their own decision and actually activate the process. The Swiss Government has put limits on the Law, and Dignitas is currently totally unable to help any person suffering from a mental illness, including Alzheimers and dementia. They are trying to reverse that decision, but so far have not been successful.

Did you see the Dimbleby lecture, with the author Terry Pratchett. It was so inspiring. There is a Terry Pratchett forum with a lot of discussion on Alzheimers and issues around this terrible disease.