Tax and trusts Archives

This is a deep dive into bond gains and planning tips.

Learning objectives

In this session we covered…

Refresher on the chargeable gains regime
Impact on personal allowance
Order of income in the tax calculation
Surrendering more than one bond in a tax year
Mixing on and offshore gains
Tax planning with under 18s

We like a collaboration, and that’s exactly what we’re doing with Aegon where we’ll cover tax topics in these video shorts. Think tax topics cut into easily bitesize videos that you can watch on the go.

Whizzing us through the tax topics is Elaine Cruickshank.

Elaine is a qualified account and member of STEP. She is Tax and Trusts Manager in the Aegon retail sales team and has been with Aegon for 17 years. She provides tax and trusts support to the Aegon retail and protection sales teams and advisers. She is Aegon’s tax and trusts spokesperson – writing articles, delivering webinars and presenting at seminars.

There’s five videos to dive into covering:

Capital losses
Taking money from a bond
Shares and capital gains tax
Scottish rate of income tax
IHT planning

So, don’t delay, get watching and if you find these useful let us know and we will make some more.

So what can you expect from a technical short?

Here’s Richard to explain what you can expect from this series.

Capital losses with aegon

Taking money from a bond

Shares and capital gains tax

Scottish rate of income tax

IHT planning

Exploring tax efficient retirement income strategies and keeping CGT in order.

Learning Objectives

In this session we covered…

What tax matters to consider for pensions
Which tax wrappers, in what order?
Keeping CGT in order
What the DFM has that got to do with CGT?
Making sense of the numbers with CGT (calculations)

Take a deep dive into the lifetime handling of a bond

Learning objectives

In this session we covered…

Dealing with an estate
What tax is due on a bond and who pays it?
Succession planning
How a Discounted Gift Trust can be used
Single life or joint life?
Using a Loan Trust
What about the grandchildren?

Looking at how you build and manage your SRI/ESG strategy

Learning objectives

In this session we covered…

Chargeable event regime
The power of gross roll up
Top slicing – basic and advanced
Update on the Silver case with worked examples
Bonds vs GIA

Looking for an introduction or useful refresher on UK tax for savings and especially offshore bonds? Here we take it all the way back to the essentials.

Learning objectives

In this session we covered…

Overview of different taxes
UK savings regime
Structure of bonds
Taxation of bonds
Myth busting
Reasons to use an offshore bond

John Bunker, consultant with Irwin Mitchell, freelance legal and tax trainer and in the process of writing the The Law Society’s Inheritance Tax Planning Handbook, takes us through some estate planning basics, focussing on the processes and procedures to be aware of.

Learning objectives

In this session we covered…

Changes to the probate application process
- Major changes to the way applications are made for a grant of probate and the aims of HM Courts & Tribunals
- Service (HMCTS); Limits to applying online
- How much information is needed and recent changes Where applications are processed and the new Probate Registry.
Estates and trusts: variations within 2 years of death
- Basics on using sections 142 (estates) and 144 (trusts), Inheritance Tax Act (IHTA) 1984.
- An introduction to IHT and CGT
- Potential use of variations for securing spouse exemptions and BPR/APR
- RNRB and planning through variations
IHT process changes for the Covid-19 crisis
- IHT accounts: new procedures to adapt to the situation
- Payments (and repayments) of IHT electronically
- Help in paying IHT during the crisis

What all Paraplanners should know about estate planning

On 11th June, John Bunker joined us for a Howwow special on estate planning basics, focussing on the processes and procedures to be aware of. Plus we dipped into the special measures taken during COVID-19. John delivers legal and tax training, as well as consulting for Irwin Mitchell.

Replay, slides and a couple of questions we didn’t have time to get to

If you missed it or want to watch again, you can watch the replay here. You can also get a copy of John’s slides here.

There were two questions that we didn’t have time to get to on the show but John has taken a look at them and answered them here. We’ve copied and pasted the questions straight from the ‘Ask a question’ area of the Howwow. You can get full context by watching the replay.

Question 1

How is the residence nil rate band impacted where the main residence was owned as tenants in common 50:50 and the 50% paid out to sons, prior to RNRB. Widow has downsized to a property which is now worth less than her own RNRB. Is the deceased’s RNRB lost in this case?

Answer 1

Yes but this isn’t straightforward. There are some principles:

If a deceased spouse left half to the sons, or that was done from his estate, then the widow’s half share is in her estate and she has a potential NRB of her own plus possibly part TNRB to transfer if the half share of property is less than value of spouse’s NRB.
If downsized since July 2015, she can look at value of earlier half share of property, and claim a “downsizing addition” on top of the RNRB for the house she has.
If the spouse died pre RNRB, she can claim TRNRB and may have more than one RNRB if sufficient value in previous property.
RNRB will be lost if the value of her current property and any downsizing addition is less than the full RNRB available.

Question 2

Can you use a DoV to remove/change benefits which were to be paid to a minor, even if you are looking to give them a share of a house, as an alternative to another asset, to use a RNRB?

Answer 2

You cannot do a DoV to take away anything from a minor. If that minor is the right beneficiary e.g. child or grandchild, and has the right trust in the will (e.g. bare trust or 18-25 if a child) so closely inherits, it does have possibilities.

If child say has half estate and house worth £500K, their half = £250K and could use £175K RNRB. It doesn’t need a specific gift; it could be just a share of the estate.

Business Property Relief (BPR) is a well-established investment incentive and estate planning tool so we’ll take a closer look at BPR-qualifying investments and how they can complement other inheritance tax planning strategies.

Learning objectives

In this session we covered…

The types of clients who could benefit from BPR-qualifying investments
Researching the right provider for your client
Due diligence

For many clients, trusts will be the backbone of their estate planning. In this session we explore how trusts can be used effectively in estate planning.

Learning objectives

In this session we covered…

How different types of trusts work, and how they fit with clients’ needs.
Using trusts and Business Property Relief together.