[Drivingforfun]

We have an elderly family member who is becoming philosophical about life, and very worried (in my opinion, unnecessarily, but that's not relevant) about the inheritance tax bill that we will have to pay in years to come and is exploring all the legal ways of minimising this

However she has also become incredibly miserly - to the point where when someone drives her to hospital she doesn't pay for the parking

As an accountant type I notice a contradiction: she wants to help out when she's gone but is being really mean in the present

I'm aware that dipping into / selling off ones assets doesn't stop inheritance tax liability, but that you can gift as much as you like out of your "regular income" i.e. pension payments - in her case these are higher than her outgoings and her estate value is only growing every month

In my view, if she helped people now, she'd reduce her estate's value, and as such, inheritance tax liability

Effectively, for every £1,000 she doesn't give away now, she's only leaving £600 to her heirs and £400 to the government

This doesn't really affect me at the moment, as I'm quite fortunate, and I'm of course grateful for whatever she leaves me, however other family members who are due to inherit are struggling and I often wonder why she doesn't see the logic?

Obviously it's an incredibly hard thing to bring up without seeming extremely ungrateful and selfish and I'm wondering if anyone else has ever had similar thoughts, or had to deal with this kind of situation?

[Mark07]

You're right, it is a tricky conversation to have.

I know that a relative of mine had a chat with a solicitor about signing their home over to their children, the solicitor refused to do it as the kids could theoretically chuck them out of their home (they wouldn't do that) and the solicitor was rightly looking after the best interests of my relative/their client.

Just my personal opinion, so feel free to ignore. If the relative doesn't actively bring it up/ask for advice, then perhaps the wider family need to just accept what will be. Perhaps, if appropriate, they could be pointed in the direction of independent advice.

[Drivingforfun]

I agree with your opinion, Mark, I maybe didn't make clear in the OP but my relative does bring it up rather obsessively, more or less every time we see her, which is quite depressing!

She makes it clear that she wants to look after her family and with me being an accountanty person it just seems a bad idea that her heirs are effectively gaining 60 pence for every pound they forsake

All that said though, I'm of the opinion that it's her money and while her wishes are not logical, death is an emotional subject and maybe it's OK to let your heart rule

[Rolebama]

As far as I am aware, when the husband dies first, on the occasion that the wife dies there is an allowance where some kind of tax reduction kicks in and the allowance before death duties increases considerably. I know my friend's widowed mother recently died leaving around £700,000 between my friend and his brother and they paid no tax. This amount included savings, some stocks and shares and the value of the house.