Inheritance tax explained Your inheritance tax bill
Adding up your IHT bill will help you work out what to do
Work out the value of your estate
To work out the value of your estate, add up:
- Any gifts you made in the last seven years that attract IHT (taxable lifetime gifts and any potentially exempt transfers)
- Your property (including property abroad), cash belongings, savings and investments and life insurance paid to your estate on your death that’s not written under trust. Include your share of anything you own jointly.
- Gifts you’ve made where you’ve retained some benefit – for example, a house you have given to someone but still live in.
- Assets held in certain types of trust from which you get some benefit – an income, say.
After that, subtract the value of:
- Your debts (such as a mortgage) and reasonable funeral expenses
- Gifts made on death that are exempt from inheritance tax
What you pay
If the total is below the tax-free allowance (currently £325,000 for a single person or up to £650,000 for married couples, civil partners and most widows, widowers and surviving partners of a civil partnership), there’s no IHT to pay. If it is above the allowance, the excess is currently taxed at 40% when you die.
- Take a look at our guide to Inheritance tax planning and tax-free gifts.
- For more on inheritance tax, see the Which? book Giving & Inheriting.
- For any tax problems, call our experts on the Which? Money Helpline
