Daily Express IHT articles

ended 01. February 2022

The Daily Express are about to run a series of articles calling for the simplification of IHT and a straightforward threshold rise to £1m, which would make it easier for ordinary families - grieving at the time - to understand and cut through what is a highly complicated policy. The journalist is keen to get some quotes from IFAs about the importance of simplifying IHT. If you drop in a “Well done to the Daily Express for raising the issue”, you'll almost certainly make it in! Any thoughts, send them over today please.

6 responses from the Newspage community

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Graeme Inglis
Director and Chartered Financial Planner at Poise Financial Planning
"Inheritance Tax is deemed to be a tax for the rich to pay. However, more and more "ordinary" families are being hit by this tax at a point when they are grieving and vulnerable. Well done to The Daily Express for raising this issue. Whilst I understand that wealth taxes are here to stay, they should be simplified to make sure they are able to be understood by the public. A straightforward single threshold of £500,000 per person or £1,000,000 between married couples or those in a civil partnership would be a big step forward and would make this tax easier to understand."
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Adrian Kidd
Chartered Wealth Manager at EQ Financial Planning
"Well done to the Express for raising awareness around the issue. It explains why we seem to have the thickest tax manuals in the world as we do like making tax overly complex. Just raise the limits to £2,000,000. If you look at the USA, they have much higher allowances that are targeting the "rich". By having nil rate bands, residence nil rates bands, potentially exempt transfers and changeable lifetime transfers, you are complicating and taxing "normal" people who have done well and are probably not a burden to the state. For this to continue, you don't dilute the wealth passed down."
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Scott Gallacher
Director at Rowley Turton
"This is a great suggestion. Inheritance Tax is far too complicated and needs simplifying. I receive many calls from people concerned about Inheritance Tax, generally for no reason. When I run through the numbers with people about their assets — such as their home, savings and investments —I usually find they are comfortably within the various allowances and needn't worry."
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Rob Peters
Principal at Simple Fast Mortgage
"In theory, inheritance tax is designed to redistribute the wealth of the super rich so that money can be shared for the benefit of all, rather than the few. On this basis, I think it is fair to say the current system is broken. The overly complex current IHT system means that financial planning in this area is a specialist art form. It's virtually impossible for an untrained individual to navigate this overly complex and convoluted area of financial planning. Additionally, access to expert advice may seem out of reach to the average public."
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Bev Wakefield
Director at Vibrant Accountancy Limited
Our tax law is one of the most complex in the world (and the longest, 2,413 pages of it, yawn) so it's no doubt that when IHT comes up as a subject, it's not fully understood, nor is it at the time when you want to start considering whether its relevant to you at a time of mourning. Last stats available in 2018/19 say that only 3.7% of deaths actually resulted in an IHT charge, which suggests that some welcome simpler rules which means individuals can quickly rule in or rule out a charge would be very welcome. That said, if you have property, a business, or any other assets, it's always important to look at this yourself, to help get rid of the burden for your family at that later point, potentially save the family some money and a headache.
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Petronella West
Chief Executive Officer at Investment Quorum
Fundamentally, the IHT legislation in outdated (1894) and unfair, so thank you to the Daily Express for bringing up the issue. The IHT legislation is extremely over complicated. It forces people into thinking that they need a lawyer, spending lots of money when they don’t need to. They also pay more tax than necessary because they don’t understand how to use all the IHT exemptions.