
Trusts and Inheritance Tax Solicitors
At Setfords, we understand that planning for the future is essential. But with so many options available, how can you be sure you’re effectively planning for your estate and maximising potential inheritance tax exemptions?
Our trusts and inheritance tax solicitors are here to help, working with you to implement the most effective plans while taking your personal circumstances and wishes into account.
From setting up complex trusts to minimising your estate’s inheritance tax liability, our specialist solicitors are here to make the process as stress-free as possible, giving you peace of mind and securing your loved ones’ futures.
Please read on or get in touch with our lawyers today to discuss your next steps.
Our Trusts and Inheritance Tax Solicitors' Areas Of Expertise
Our trusts and inheritance tax solicitors are here to guide you through the estate planning process, ensuring your will and trusts meet your needs. Our areas of expertise include the following, but please contact us to discuss your requirements.
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Trusts
Trusts
A trust can be an effective way to reduce the amount of inheritance tax (IHT) paid. With a trust, assets are held by a trustee(s), for the benefit of named beneficiaries. Assets held in a trust can be used for a variety of reasons, including:
- Helping children onto the property ladder
- Providing long-term care and assistance for disabled or vulnerable family members
- Passing money onto children that can be accessed once they reach an appropriate age
- Setting up a charitable foundation in your name
Our inheritance tax solicitors can assist you with trusts to ensure your assets are protected for the next generation, and unnecessary IHT isn’t paid:
- Assessing your estate and identifying potential IHT liabilities
- Recommending the most suitable type of trust for your needs and objectives, such as family trusts or will trusts
- Drafting the necessary legal documents to establish the trust
- Ensuring the trust is legally sound and complies with all tax laws
- Structuring the trust to minimise IHT
- Anticipating and addressing potential issues, including changes in tax laws and disputes between beneficiaries
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Trust Administration
Trust Administration
Trustees of a trust have a varied set of responsibilities to ensure the assets are protected for the beneficiaries. Our solicitors can assist with trust administration, providing expert guidance and ensuring you’re complying with all of the legal and tax requirements that come with being a trustee. For example:
- Advising trustees of their obligations, interpreting the terms and conditions of the trust deed, and providing clarity on ambiguities or conflicts
- Advising on tax-efficient strategies for managing and distributing the assets
- Advising on appropriate strategies to maximise the trust’s value
- Helping protect the trust from potential claims or liabilities
- Helping communicate with beneficiaries, and resolve any disputes among them
- Ensuring the trust complies with all tax obligations, including income tax, capital gains tax (CGT), and inheritance tax
- Determining the most appropriate distribution of assets to the beneficiaries, according to the terms of the trust
- Preparing trust accounts and tax returns
- Advising charity trustees on charity regulations and compliance
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International Estate Planning
International Estate Planning
Your estate may need to take multiple jurisdictions into account if you have assets held outside of the UK. This can be complex, however an expert inheritance tax lawyer can advise you on opportunities to reduce the amount of IHT paid. Our lawyers can assist you with all aspects of international estate planning, including:
- Determining which tax laws apply to your assets and beneficiaries
- Advising on strategies to minimise tax liabilities
- Drafting wills and establishing trusts that are valid in multiple jurisdictions
- Navigating foreign probate processes
- Assisting in the transfer of assets across countries, ensuring compliance with all laws and regulations
- Minimising the impact of double taxation
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Business Succession Planning
Business Succession Planning
If you own your own business, it’s natural to worry about who will take over from you in the future. Our inheritance tax solicitors can work with their colleagues across various practice areas to assist you with business succession planning, ensuring your business passes on to your chosen successors:
- Advising on the best structure for succession planning, considering tax implications, ease of transfer, and more
- Ensuring you take the best advantage of business relief from inheritance tax
- Developing a timeline for the transition
- Drafting and reviewing partnership agreements and shareholder agreements
- Creating the appropriate wills and trusts to transfer ownership to your chosen successors
- Determining the fair market value of your business
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Specialist Wills
Specialist Wills
In more complicated inheritance planning cases, the use of specialist wills can be helpful to plan for the future and avoid paying unnecessary IHT. Some examples include:
- Asset protection to prevent claims from third parties not named in the will
- In the case of second marriages, ensuring children from the first marriage can receive the chosen assets
- Wills considering the succession planning for a business, including the transfer of shares
- Wills appointing guardians and trustees for beneficiaries with disabilities or who are otherwise vulnerable
- Details of charitable giving to ensure a lasting legacy and maximise inheritance tax exemptions
- Wills considering overseas property and the tax implications of this
Please get in touch with our expert inheritance tax solicitors to discuss your circumstances and create a will that reflects your wishes while maximising IHT exemptions for your beneficiaries.
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Charitable Giving
Charitable Giving
Our inheritance tax specialists can advise you on charitable giving, including how to maximise IHT exemptions whilst leaving a lasting legacy through charitable giving or setting up your own charitable foundation.
Trusts
A trust can be an effective way to reduce the amount of inheritance tax (IHT) paid. With a trust, assets are held by a trustee(s), for the benefit of named beneficiaries. Assets held in a trust can be used for a variety of reasons, including:
- Helping children onto the property ladder
- Providing long-term care and assistance for disabled or vulnerable family members
- Passing money onto children that can be accessed once they reach an appropriate age
- Setting up a charitable foundation in your name
Our inheritance tax solicitors can assist you with trusts to ensure your assets are protected for the next generation, and unnecessary IHT isn’t paid:
- Assessing your estate and identifying potential IHT liabilities
- Recommending the most suitable type of trust for your needs and objectives, such as family trusts or will trusts
- Drafting the necessary legal documents to establish the trust
- Ensuring the trust is legally sound and complies with all tax laws
- Structuring the trust to minimise IHT
- Anticipating and addressing potential issues, including changes in tax laws and disputes between beneficiaries
Trust Administration
Trustees of a trust have a varied set of responsibilities to ensure the assets are protected for the beneficiaries. Our solicitors can assist with trust administration, providing expert guidance and ensuring you’re complying with all of the legal and tax requirements that come with being a trustee. For example:
- Advising trustees of their obligations, interpreting the terms and conditions of the trust deed, and providing clarity on ambiguities or conflicts
- Advising on tax-efficient strategies for managing and distributing the assets
- Advising on appropriate strategies to maximise the trust’s value
- Helping protect the trust from potential claims or liabilities
- Helping communicate with beneficiaries, and resolve any disputes among them
- Ensuring the trust complies with all tax obligations, including income tax, capital gains tax (CGT), and inheritance tax
- Determining the most appropriate distribution of assets to the beneficiaries, according to the terms of the trust
- Preparing trust accounts and tax returns
- Advising charity trustees on charity regulations and compliance
International Estate Planning
Your estate may need to take multiple jurisdictions into account if you have assets held outside of the UK. This can be complex, however an expert inheritance tax lawyer can advise you on opportunities to reduce the amount of IHT paid. Our lawyers can assist you with all aspects of international estate planning, including:
- Determining which tax laws apply to your assets and beneficiaries
- Advising on strategies to minimise tax liabilities
- Drafting wills and establishing trusts that are valid in multiple jurisdictions
- Navigating foreign probate processes
- Assisting in the transfer of assets across countries, ensuring compliance with all laws and regulations
- Minimising the impact of double taxation
Business Succession Planning
If you own your own business, it’s natural to worry about who will take over from you in the future. Our inheritance tax solicitors can work with their colleagues across various practice areas to assist you with business succession planning, ensuring your business passes on to your chosen successors:
- Advising on the best structure for succession planning, considering tax implications, ease of transfer, and more
- Ensuring you take the best advantage of business relief from inheritance tax
- Developing a timeline for the transition
- Drafting and reviewing partnership agreements and shareholder agreements
- Creating the appropriate wills and trusts to transfer ownership to your chosen successors
- Determining the fair market value of your business
Specialist Wills
In more complicated inheritance planning cases, the use of specialist wills can be helpful to plan for the future and avoid paying unnecessary IHT. Some examples include:
- Asset protection to prevent claims from third parties not named in the will
- In the case of second marriages, ensuring children from the first marriage can receive the chosen assets
- Wills considering the succession planning for a business, including the transfer of shares
- Wills appointing guardians and trustees for beneficiaries with disabilities or who are otherwise vulnerable
- Details of charitable giving to ensure a lasting legacy and maximise inheritance tax exemptions
- Wills considering overseas property and the tax implications of this
Please get in touch with our expert inheritance tax solicitors to discuss your circumstances and create a will that reflects your wishes while maximising IHT exemptions for your beneficiaries.
Charitable Giving
Our inheritance tax specialists can advise you on charitable giving, including how to maximise IHT exemptions whilst leaving a lasting legacy through charitable giving or setting up your own charitable foundation.
Setfords’ Approach to Trusts and Inheritance Tax Planning
At Setfords, we understand that dealing with trusts and inheritance tax planning can be complicated and confusing.
We are here to help, providing the advice you need with a supportive and professional service that’s tailored to your needs.
All of our trusts and inheritance tax solicitors are specialists in this area, and will guide you through the estate planning and trusts process with ease and confidence.
Please get in touch to discuss how we can assist you today.
Our Trusts and Inheritance Tax Solicitors
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Debjani Mukherjee MSc
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Amir Hamzavi
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Andrea Godfrey
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Allen Lindsay
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Claire Ritchie
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Agatha Edeko
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Carol Lee
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Ben Brassington
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Trusts and Inheritance Tax FAQs
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What is inheritance tax?
Inheritance Tax (IHT) is a tax paid to HMRC on a person’s estate when they die, if the value of the estate is over a certain threshold. Currently, the threshold is £325,000 in most cases. IHT is charged at 40% of the estate’s value over £325,000.
If the value of your estate is less than £325,000, or you leave everything above £325,000 to your spouse, civil partner, charity, or a community amateur sports club, there is typically no IHT to pay. Certain arrangements, such as trusts, can also reduce the amount of IHT payable.
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What is a trust?
A trust is a legal arrangement that enables you to manage assets, including money, property, and investments. There are several different types of trusts, and they are all taxed differently. They can be used to pass on assets while you are still alive, to pass on assets when you die, to handle assets for someone who is too young or doesn’t have the mental capacity to do it themselves, to protect family assets, and more. You must appoint trustees who are responsible for looking after the trust for the beneficiaries (the people you’ve chosen to benefit from the trust).
When estate planning, using trusts can help you legally reduce your estate’s inheritance tax liability. Get in touch with one of our inheritance tax specialist lawyers for advice on your specific situation.
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Do you pay inheritance tax on a trust?
Setting up a trust can reduce the amount of inheritance tax you pay. Once assets are put into a trust, they no longer belong to you but to the trust, and so are not normally counted towards your estate for IHT purposes.
However, this is a complex topic, and everyone’s situation is different. Different types of trusts attract different levels of taxation. Get in touch with an inheritance tax solicitor for more information based on your specific needs.
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When is inheritance tax paid?
Inheritance tax must be paid by the end of the sixth month after the person’s death. So, if someone died in February, the IHT must be paid by 30th August.
If you don’t pay the IHT by the due date, you will be charged interest by HMRC. The executors of the estate may choose to pay the tax on assets like property in instalments over ten years, however interest will still be payable on the outstanding amount.
Furthermore, if an asset is sold within the time before IHT is due, the executors are responsible for paying IHT at the point it is sold.
If you are making payments on a trust, there are different due dates. Typically, IHT must be paid every ten years from when the trust is set up, paid within six months after each ten year milestone is reached. If anything is transferred into or out of a trust, IHT must be paid on these within six months after the end of the month the transfer was made in.
Please contact our inheritance tax lawyers for more information on your specific situation.
Speak to a Trusts & Inheritance Tax Solicitors Solicitor on 0330 828 4863