Inheritance Tax is charged at 40% on the value of an estate above the available nil-rate bands, yet most of that bill can be planned away with time. We map your exposure and the steps that reduce it, signed off by a Chartered Accountant/Chartered Tax Advisor.
Selling property is often the moment people first look at their wider tax position. If you have just disposed of an asset, or inherited one, it is the right time to settle the Inheritance Tax picture too. The two sit on the same ladder.
Inheritance Tax is charged at 40% on the value of an estate above the available nil-rate bands. On a large estate that runs into six figures, and most of it can be planned away with time.
The 7-year clock on gifts, gifts from surplus income and pension structuring all work better the earlier you start. Leave it late and the most powerful options close off.
House prices have pushed ordinary estates over the threshold. The residence nil-rate band helps, but it tapers away on larger estates and the rules on who inherits are strict.
A short call about your estate, your family and what you want to achieve. No obligation, and nothing is acted on yet.
A short callWe tell you the scope of work and the price before anything starts. Estate reviews start from £495; larger projects are quoted after the call.
Price agreed up frontA Chartered Accountant/Chartered Tax Advisor maps your exposure and the steps that reduce it, in plain English, and confirms the position that applies to you.
Chartered sign-offNo commitment from the first call. You find out what your exposure looks like and what the work would cost before you decide anything. The price is fixed and agreed up front, never billed by the hour.
One review, the whole estate. We work through the areas that move the bill, tell you which apply to you, and leave you with a written plan you can act on. Anything that needs further work (drafting a trust, restructuring a business) is quoted as a fixed fee first.
Estate review and IHT exposure
A full picture of your estate, the nil-rate bands available to you, and a clear figure for the Inheritance Tax your estate would currently pay, with where it can be reduced.
Lifetime gifting strategy
Using the 7-year rule, the annual and small-gift exemptions, gifts out of surplus income, and the order of gifting to move value out of the estate without falling foul of the gift-with-reservation rules.
Trusts
Whether a discretionary, interest-in-possession or bare trust fits: set-up, the 10-year and exit charges, and how a trust interacts with the residence nil-rate band.
Business and agricultural property
Business Relief and Agricultural Relief on qualifying trading businesses, shares and farmland: eligibility, the holding-period rules, and protecting relief through restructuring.
Life policies in trust
Writing life cover into trust so the payout lands outside your estate and reaches your beneficiaries without an IHT charge or probate delay.
Probate-stage and deed of variation
Planning for executors and beneficiaries after a death, including a deed of variation within two years to redirect an inheritance more tax-efficiently.
A starting point, not a personal calculation. We confirm the figures that apply to your estate before anything is acted on.
Thresholds and reliefs are set by HMRC and change over time. These figures are a starting point only. We confirm the position that applies to you before any planning is acted on. This page is general information, not personal tax advice.
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Your plan is settled by a Chartered Accountant/Chartered Tax Advisor.
You know the price before any work starts. No hourly billing, no surprise invoices.
Four ways to handle Inheritance Tax planning. A will decides who gets what; it does not, on its own, reduce the tax. That is the part a chartered review adds.
| Do it yourself | Will writer | Solicitor | LetsFile | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drafts a valid will | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | Refers you to a will writer |
| Models your IHT exposure in £ | ✗ | Rarely | Sometimes | ✓ |
| Chartered tax sign-off | ✗ | ✗ | If tax-qualified | ✓ |
| Gifting and 7-year-rule strategy | ✗ | ✗ | Sometimes | ✓ |
| Trusts and reliefs advice | ✗ | Limited | ✓ | ✓ |
| Plain-English written plan | ✗ | Basic | Often legalistic | ✓ |
| Fixed fee, agreed up front | Free | Usually fixed | Often hourly | ✓ |
Will writers and solicitors do work LetsFile does not, and we will tell you when you need one (and refer you). What a chartered review adds is the tax side: a clear figure for your exposure and a plan that uses the reliefs and exemptions to bring it down.
Inheritance Tax planning
Fixed-fee quote
The scoping call is free. Estate reviews start from £495, and larger projects (trusts, business or agricultural property, probate-stage work) are quoted after the call. You always know the price before any work starts.
Book a free scoping call →Every person has a £325,000 nil-rate band, and up to £175,000 more (the residence nil-rate band) can apply when a home passes to children or grandchildren, though it tapers away for larger estates. Unused bands pass to a surviving spouse or civil partner, so a couple leaving a family home to direct descendants can often pass on up to £1 million before IHT starts. We confirm the exact figures for your estate before anything is acted on.
Most outright gifts leave your estate completely if you survive them by 7 years. Die within 7 years and the gift comes back into the reckoning, though tax on gifts made 3 to 7 years before death can be reduced by taper relief. The catch people miss: keep using what you gave away (living in the gifted house, say) and the gift-with-reservation rules can put it straight back in your estate.
Up to a point, yes. There is a £3,000 annual exemption, a small-gifts exemption, wedding-gift exemptions, and, often the most valuable and least used, an exemption for regular gifts made out of surplus income. Used properly and documented properly, these move real value out of the estate with no 7-year clock at all.
Transfers between UK-domiciled spouses and civil partners are exempt, and the survivor inherits any unused nil-rate bands. The planning question is usually not the first death but the second: that is when the combined estate meets the bands, and when earlier planning shows its worth.
Sometimes. Trusts still earn their keep for control (minor children, vulnerable beneficiaries, second marriages) and for specific assets like life policies. They also carry their own charges: entry, 10-year and exit. We will tell you plainly whether a trust adds anything for your estate or just adds cost.
The scoping call is free. Estate reviews start from £495, and larger projects (trusts, business or agricultural property, probate-stage work) get a fixed-fee quote after the call. You always know the price before any work starts.
Earlier than feels necessary. The most powerful tools (the 7-year clock, gifts from surplus income, pension structuring) all reward time. A common trigger is a property sale or an inheritance: a moment when value is liquid and decisions are open. That is the ideal time for a review.
Not necessarily. A deed of variation, made within two years of the death, lets beneficiaries redirect an inheritance, sometimes saving IHT on the estate or on their own future estate. Executors also have choices on valuations and reliefs. Worth a call before anything is finalised.
Advice is given by a Chartered Accountant/Chartered Tax Advisor and based on the facts you give us. We confirm the figures and reliefs that apply to your estate before any planning is acted on. This page is general information, not personal tax advice.
Inheritance Tax often comes up alongside a sale or an inheritance. These are the returns and reviews that sit next to it.
Selling a property you inherited has its own 60-day return, computed from the probate value.
One-off chartered advice on a property tax question before you act.
A structural look at a rental portfolio: ownership, incorporation and succession.
The annual return where rental income, gifts and estate income are reported.
Tell us about your estate on a free 15-minute call. We will tell you, in plain English, what your exposure looks like and what can be done about it, then give you a fixed-fee quote for the work.
Book a free scoping call →Chartered Accountant/Chartered Tax Advisor · fixed-fee quote · no obligation