Potentially, one of the most underutilised Inheritance Tax (IHT) planning strategies is to take advantage of Business Property relief. A typical reaction when we raise this option with clients is “I don’t want to own and run a Business at my age and my stage of life”, and naturally we would agree.
Advantages of Business Property Relief
Hence, why many companies are now successfully running a portfolio of qualifying investments for clients who are then able to take advantage of the main Business Relief benefits, which are:
Speed
An investment into a qualifying Business Relief strategy ordinarily becomes 100% exempt from IHT after just 2 years. Furthermore, there are now multiple options which offer, with an accompanying insurance policy, virtually immediate IHT relief with no requirement for a 2 year qualifying period.
Control
Using Business Relief simply involves making and retaining an investment, there is no need to gift funds, to create a Trust or to set up an Insurance policy with premiums payable for an indeterminate period.
Access
You make an investment, as with any other form of investing, and thereafter you elect whether you require ongoing and regular income or just ad hoc withdrawals as necessary.
Duncan Orr interviews Bethany Dudley, Associate Director at Foresight Group. This provides a great and timely reminder of many of the key considerations for anyone contemplating using Business Property Relief.
Click the arrow on the left of the bar below to start the interview.
Or you can download and save the interview with Bethany from here
If you have a significant Inheritance Tax planning challenge and you wish to discuss how to mitigate or plan to reduce this, please do contact us on 01825 76 33 66 or send us an email.
