THIS TRANSCRIPT IS ISSUED ON THE UNDERSTANDING THAT IT IS TAKEN FROM A LIVE PROGRAMME AS IT WAS BROADCAST. THE NATURE OF LIVE BROADCASTING MEANS THAT NEITHER THE BBC NOR THE PARTICIPANTS IN THE PROGRAMME CAN GUARANTEE THE ACCURACY OF THE INFORMATION PRINTED HERE. Tape Transcript by JANE TEMPLE MONEY BOX LIVE Presenter: Paul Lewis Guests: Suzanne Marriottt John Whiting David Rothenberg TRANSMISSION 28th OCT 2002 1500 - 1530 RADIO 4 ____________________________________________________________ ANNOUNCER : And now it’s time for MONEY BOX LIVE with Paul Lewis. LEWIS: Hello. Today we’re answering your questions on inheritance tax. It used to be a worry just for rich people –not anymore. The tax starts if you leave more than a quarter of a million pounds and that’s not much more than the value of an ordinary family home in many parts of Britain. Everything over that is taxed at 40%. Over the last five years the amount of inheritance tax collected by the Chancellor has grown by nearly a billion pounds and with house prices still rising by some say 20% a year, that figure can only grow in the future. So how do you protect your heirs from the Chancellor’s demands? Wealthy people seem to manage it. In the last year the heirs of the Queen Mother and the Duke of Argyll are thought to have paid no inheritance tax on their estates each worth tens of millions of pounds. Part of the secret is using a trust but are they suitable for people who are not wealthy? Can you just give your property away while you’re alive, give your home to your children for example or are there sneaky ways the tax man still takes your money? And what about making smaller gifts – is everything caught in the inheritance tax net? And of course if you do give it away what will you do for cash while you’re alive? This is the big question – how can you protect your heirs from paying tax while making sure you have enough for your own needs? Well whatever your question call Money Box Live now – 08700 100 444 And with me today to answer your questions about inheritance tax are Suzanne Marriott a partner with solicitors Charles Russell who specialises in trusts. David Rothenberg, senior tax partner with accounts Blick Rothenberg and John Whiting, a tax partner with accountants Pricewaterhousecoopers. The first question is from John Cooper who’s in Cambridge. John, your question? JOHN: Hello. My wife and I have a three storey house. We only use two floors and we anticipate a heavy inheritance tax charge after the second of us dies. Could we give the ground floor to our adult children for their sole use – we hope to live seven years and then avoid well quite a large amount of inheritance tax? LEWIS: Indeed. Well it’s the kind of question we’ve been getting in – I must say. David Rothenberg let me start with you because this is something your company has been talking about isn’t it –sharing a house with children and giving them it? ROTHENBERG: Yes, I’m not clear about the ground floor John. Is it at the moment a separate property or is it JOHN: No it isn’t – I mean to be a separate property some work would have to be done on it. ROTHENBERG: Would you intend doing that work or? JOHN: Well if it seemed to be worthwhile yes ROTHENBERG: Because the problem is to persuade the Inland Revenue although you claim you’ve given the ground floor to your children how do you prove to them you’re not in fact still occupying it. If it’s a separate property it’s going to be a great deal easier to show. JOHN: Yes well if it was made into a flat presumably it could be let off and they could benefit from the rent of it? ROTHENBERG: Absolutely LEWIS: And John if it was a separate property or even if it wasn’t and some of John’s children came to live with him and lived in that ground floor or lived in the whole house with him then he could give them part of it and that would work? WHITING: Yes I mean we’re in this involved area of gifts with reservation of benefit, because in simple terms it isn’t possible for John or anybody else to give their property away and continue to live in it. It doesn’t work for inheritance tax – people think it does – sorry, doesn’t. There’s various twitches and one of John’s ideas give a complete chunk away – constitutes a separate dwelling as David is saying, that may well work but then there’s a little wrinkle – I mean it could perhaps typically apply to a widowed mother gets one of her children to come and live with her – share the house, can give half of it away and that actually avoids this gift with reservation but it does mean that they have to stay living there and it may not suit. ROTHENBERG: And they’ve got to pay their share of the total costs of WHITING: Of the out goings – indeed David – absolutely. ROTHENBERG: I mean you can’t just live there as it were your parents’ guest – you really must contribute your fair share. LEWIS: Yeah well it’s a difficult one I’m sure we’ll have other calls on it during the course of the afternoon. So let’s move on – thanks for your call John and something to think about but not quite as simple as it might seem on the surface. Shirley’s calling us from Peterborough – Shirley, your question? SHIRLEY: Oh yes hello there. My parents are about to retire and a financial advisor suggested to them that they should perhaps consider taking out an insurance policy to cover the inheritance tax. We haven’t heard of policies like this before so basically we’re just wondering how they work and whether it would actually be worth taking out? LEWIS: Suzanne Marriott? MARRIOTT: Is it a policy to pay out on joint death – on the second death? SHIRLEY: Well I guess on the second death yes MARRIOTT: I mean they certainly can work. You’ve got to look at obviously the cost because you’ve got to weigh up the amount that they’re going to be paying to the insurance company as opposed to the potential tax that might be paid on the second death. And look at those rates very carefully and look at the small print, but obviously yes in theory if there worded correctly and you’ve got good advice they do work provided that the death benefits of those are written in trust. LEWIS: And just explain what you mean by that? MARRIOTT: That’s when you need to make sure that the death benefits will not fall into your parents-in-law’s estates when they die and that the beneficiaries will be people who will presumably their children. SHIRLEY: So they’d have to name the beneficiaries in the policy? MARRIOTT: That’s right. It’s really a matter of it’s usually filling in a form when you take out the policy – there’s a special trust nomination form that’s usually attached to the policy but you need to make sure you ask for it and get advice on it. LEWIS: And John Whiting, there are two sorts of these insurance policies aren’t there? – there’s ones to try and pay the whole lot which I think is what we’re talking about here and there’s ones where if you give a large chunk of money away to cover the tax on that should you die before seven years? WHITING: I mean for example if somebody were to give you a million pounds then if they were to die within the next seven years there would be a chunk of inheritance tax to pay cos obviously it’s well above the quarter of a million pound threshold. Now that amount of inheritance tax is something you might consider taking out insurance policy against just to give you a swatch to pay that – you can predict the amounts, it can taper away but that’s just for that period – what Shirley and Suzanne have really been talking about is of course something that might bulk up to be a nice pot outside the estate to meet an inheritance tax bill. LEWIS: So that’s in a way David a bit like putting something aside outside your estate so to speak in trust so that it doesn’t form part of the estate anyway, in this case hoping it will pay the bill? ROTHENBERG: Yes I think – I’m a bit concerned Shirley that your parents don’t have enough cash flow to pay the premiums. SHIRLEY: Well in fact the advisor actually suggested that they might like to ask the beneficiaries to pay the premiums rather than paying it themselves? ROTHENBERG: Well that’s perfectly good tax planning but really all you’re doing is you’re paying the tax in advance. And you’ve got to decide whether you want to do that or not. LEWIS: and it should be said I suppose that whoever’s selling it to them is going to make a considerable amount of commission out of doing so? WHITING: Just possibly – just possibly. LEWIS: Okay Shirley, thanks for your call. Lots of interesting thoughts there. Let’s move on to Pauline now who’s calling us from Surrey – Pauline, your question? PAULINE: Hello. In order for our children to save on inheritance tax could you tell me please what steps are required for a married couple currently joint tenants in the house to become tenants in common? Are the services of a solicitor required or may we simply inform the Land Registry and our mortgage lender? LEWIS: Okay, well let’s put that to Suzanne and let’s start Suzanne by explaining that Pauline and her husband aren’t in fact tenants at all, they own this property – it’s a strange phrase isn’t it? MARRIOTT: That’s right. Joint tenants is also very confusing. You actually own it jointly and obviously automatically when one of you dies the other one inherits automatically and you want to what we call severe the joint tenancy to become tenants in common? PAULINE: Yes that’s correct – yes – I do understand that bit. MARRIOTT: Well yes you do need to inform the Land Registry. You also need to inform each other, and the most important part of the severance notice is actually serving notice on each other that you’ve severed the joint tenancy and that’s what needs to happen. And yes, you can do that and you can inform the Land Registry that you’ve done that because the title deeds will need to be amended. But then it’s also going forward – what do you do with that? The whole point of it is so that one of you can pass down a share of your property on the first death because that’s what’s really going to save the inheritance tax and that’s when you might need to go and see the solicitor to think about wills. LEWIS: Just before we move on to the inheritance tax point Suzanne, is it sufficient for Pauline and her husband simply to write to each other and say the property known as x will in future be owned as tenants in common, half each- is that all they need or do they need to go to a solicitor? MARRIOTT: They don’t need to go to a solicitor no. LEWIS: And I should just add that in Scotland things are slightly different –the terms are different but the principle is the same – I think joint tenants are called joint owners with survivorship and tenants in common are called joint owners – they always do things much more simply and straightforwardly in Scotland don’t they. John Whiting, just explain, let’s move on now from this – they sever it so the house, they each own a half of the house rather than both owning all the house. What do they do then to reduce inheritance tax? WHITING: Well, they then own half the house each. They’ve obviously then got a large chunk of capital each which they can think in terms of passing down to the children, so rather than the traditional oh I’ll leave everything to surviving husband or wife. LEWIS: Which a lot of people think don’t they WHITING: Which a lot of people automatically do LEWIS: It’s free of tax so they think it’s a good way to save tax. WHITING: Indeed. The trouble is if you do that you waste the nil rate band – this first quarter of a million that doesn’t attract any inheritance tax, so what you want to do is manoeuvre a use of that and that can be it if you’ve got half the house and you can pass that down to your children direct then no inheritance tax perhaps on all of that or at least a large chunk of it. LEWIS: But what happens when Pauline or her husband, one of them dies first – half the house then belongs to the children, but the survivor still lives in it – that’s not caught by this gift with reservation of benefit? WHITING: It’s not caught by the gift with reservation – what it could be caught by is a family row as to what happens to the house and sometimes I mean despite everything being hunky dory you have to think about this and this is where possibly a trust comes in – one can think in terms of leaving your half into a trust, beneficiaries, possibly children and spouse. ROTHENBERG: I’m not sure I entirely agree with you John. WHITING: Go on ROTHENBERG: Because the Inland Revenue have a nasty little rule which says that if there’s a trust which as a property and you can live in the property because you’re a beneficiary of the trust then you’re treated as if you own the property. So you actually will go around in a complete circle and come back where you started. LEWIS: But in principle it does work –you separate the property, you leave half each – John was talking about family rows – it could also be something external like a divorce, a bankruptcy – when the courts would come in and say that house must be sold, so there are dangers in doing this even though it works on the surface if all goes well. ROTHENBERG: I’m not disagreeing with that at all but the practical problem is if you’re looking at inheritance tax planning then a trust to own half a house in which the survivor lives is counter productive – it doesn’t work. LEWIS: Okay but it can be done without a trust – so let’s leave trusts aside – it can work. WHITING: I mean it’s the sort of thing unfortunately that gets talked about a great deal isn’t it? LEWIS: Indeed. I think we’ve just learned that if you have two accountants in a room you get three different views of the law. Let’s move on now – thanks very much for your call Pauline and let’s on move on now to Claude who’s calling from Devon – Claude? CLAUDE: I have a grandson in Australia – an extremely sick young man and some years ago I set up a trust through the public trustee in Canberra. I put in a sum of money as a starter and just recently I’ve dispatched some more to keep it going if you understand me. With the changes that are apparent now you know with inheritance tax generally I’m wondering in view of his particular circumstances whether the authorities will still remain stoneyhearted and say well you’ve given the money away – it ranks with inheritance tax or in view of his extreme illness would they be ready or permitted to discount it in any way? LEWIS: Okay well let’s put that to Suzanne – they’re not generally that generous just because people are not well are they Suzanne? MARRIOTT: No I mean as long as you’ve given it away it’s no longer in your estate for inheritance tax purposes and obviously you’ve got to survive the seven years if it’s a lump sum of great amount. But how much roughly are we talking about Claude – because if it’s within your £3000 annual allowance then you can carry on giving this or even if it’s normal expenditure out of income? CLAUDE: The equivalent of about 10,000 Australian dollars which I suppose then was worth about £2500 you see – that was a few years ago but now I’ve just sent over 10,000 Sterling which would be about 25,000 dollars. LEWIS: Right, so that’s not – I mean those are obviously important amounts of money but they – would that count for inheritance tax necessarily? MARRIOTT: Well they’re leaving Claude’s estate so provided he survives, yes they will count. I mean they’ve gone from him. It’s no longer in his control. LEWIS: So providing he survives seven years they won’t count, but if he should die in the immediate future then they could form part of his estate? MARRIOTT: They could do LEWIS: Tax could be due on the balance that’s left in this country. ROTHENBERG: But he might only have to pay – include the £4000 cos he’s given away £10,000 – that’s £3,000 for this year, £3,000 for last year – only £4000 being charged to tax. LEWIS: Right now let’s just get those clear cos we haven’t mentioned those yet. How much can you give away without it counting for inheritance tax? ROTHENBERG: You can give away £3000 in each tax year and if you didn’t give away £3000 last year you can boost this year’s gift by what you didn’t use last year so if Claude give away nothing last year he can give away £6000 this year and it’s immediately exempt. If he’s given away ten, that leaves only four potentially giving rise to a problem if he doesn’t survive seven years. LEWIS: And we don’t know this – but if Claude was married and this was joint money those amounts would be doubled would they? MARRIOTT: They would LEWIS: So if you’ve done nothing and you’re a couple you can give away £12,000 without worrying? MARRIOTT: That’s right LEWIS: Okay, well it’s perhaps not too much worry there Claude but something to think about – let’s move on to Alan now who’s calling us from Wales – Alan? ALAN: Yes, we’ve no children my wife and I – and we have an art business/pottery and we do our art. What we were thinking of doing to put this into a trust where the estate actually looks after the art and craft business. And don’t want the tax people to be taking any money out of this if it goes over £250,000 – and I’d like to know what procedure to go? LEWIS: John Whiting, what can he do? WHITING: Well to start with Alan I mean this is an on-going pottery business that you’ve got is it – pottery and art. There are actually some very generous business property release as they’re known within the inheritance tax system and in general they can completely get an active business as you seem to have outside the inheritance tax net – 100% business property relief in the jargon so if the business is worth half a million pounds, rather than looking at £250,000 at nil - £250,000 at 40%, you’re potentially saying that tax man will view it as no it’s alright, no inheritance tax on that. So to start with there may well be no particular inheritance tax worries on it at all. ALAN: Oh LEWIS: And David Rothenberg, I suppose in this kind of case where there are substantial assets in a business, see an accountant, get advice, but it could be that there’ll be very little to pay? ROTHENBERG: Yes, and on top of that if they want to do it now they could even put it into a trust today – they wouldn’t have any capital gains tax to pay either because of what’s called ‘holder relief’. Whether it’s necessary to do that I’m not sure but if you’ve got a husband and wife you’re gonna have to worry about what happens if something happens to one of you. Presumably what you want to do is the survivor will inherit it and only the second will make these trust arrangements – is that you have in mind? ALAN: That’s right yes ROTHENBERG: Yes, well I can’t see any particular problems with it. You’re one of these fortunate people for whom the rules actually work in your favour. LEWIS: Because your assets are in a business – so that’s perhaps good news. John Whiting? WHITING: I mean purely practical point – that obviously one of the things Alan’s got to think of is where is the business going to go because I mean indeed a trust might be the answer if they want to leave it for the benefit of the workers perhaps within the business but that’s a practical issue. MARRIOTT: The choice of trustees actually Alan is one of your most important considerations. Who’s actually going to be running it for you after the second death? – and who are the beneficiaries – is it a charity or is other friends and family? LEWIS: I suppose particularly important for a family business because often they rely so much on the people who started it and run it and after that it may not work terribly well if it was run by a committee. Anyway, Alan – possibly some good news there, but I think do seek some advice about that, but it could be that you end up without or at least your heirs paying no inheritance tax. Let’s talk to Sheila now who’s calling from Teeside – Sheila your question? SHEILA: Hello LEWIS: Yes your question? SHEILA: My mum who’s 92 – she’s left her property in her will to my brother and I. Now she’s starting to worry a little about what happens if she goes into a home? LEWIS: Well may I ask how much you think the property’s worth? SHEILA: Ah £80/90,000 LEWIS: Right – David Rothenberg? ROTHENBERG: Does your mother have many other assets apart from her house? SHEILA: No, just pensions ROTHENBERG: Well she doesn’t have an inheritance tax problem at all or put it rather differently you and your brother don’t have an inheritance tax problem if something happens to your mother. I think what you maybe concerned with is rather more what contributions she may have to make towards the cost of living in a home because her house tends to be taken into account to see how much contribution if any the local authority will make to helping pay her costs if she does have to go into a home. LEWIS: But those of course are entirely different rules which we’re not particularly dealing with today, so I mean it’s just worth stressing I suppose isn’t it John Whiting, inheritance tax doesn’t affect you at all if you’re not going to leave more than £250,000 including your house? WHITING: That’s the basic cut off point and the basic simple rule of inheritance tax is everything you leave behind on death and to a certain extent gifts within the last seven years – add ‘em up, if it’s under quarter of a million pounds and that limit goes up periodically, no inheritance tax. And over that yes it can start to bite. LEWIS: But indeed Sheila your mother may find she has to make contributions to her care but of course they can’t actually force her to sell the house. The bill can notch up while she’s in there and then you can all sort it out at some point in the future, but that’s a slightly different question from the one we’re answering today. Let’s move on to Ken now who’s ringing us from Yorkshire – Ken, your question? KEN: Oh good afternoon. Myself and my partner we have been together for 40 odd years – it’s a gay relationship. We don’t want our families to benefit when the last one goes. I want to know can it be left to a charity or nothing paid? or can we do it now and say well I mean we’re not expecting living donkey years, don’t think that LEWIS: So just to be clear you want your house and your other property to go to charity rather than to individuals. KEN: To pay the inheritance tax yeah. Now then would it be wiser to do it before we die or would it be alright after? LEWIS: Okay we’ve got a bit of crackle on the line and there’s your dog in the background – Suzanne? MARRIOTT: Well the most important thing Ken is to make a will because you probably realise if you don’t it’s not automatic that either you or your partner’s going to get the house. But obviously you’re not going to have an inheritance tax problem if you’re going to leave it to charity and on the second death if that’s what you decide to do is that your house and your assets go to charity then there isn’t any inheritance to pay and the charity will then inherit all your worldly goods. LEWIS: But the important thing for anybody is to make a will because if you die intestate without a will then rules come into effect and in fact the property would go to their families because from what I gather it would be exactly the opposite of what they want. John Whiting? WHITING: There’s one very important point underneath this – the traditional way of owning a house as we’ve had from an earlier question is the joint tenant and the survivor takes all. Now people traditionally think therefore the survivor takes all – no inheritance tax. That’s fine for a married couple. For an unmarried couple gay or heterosexual it is an issue because half the property value goes to the other. That could create an inheritance tax problem at that point. LEWIS: So if half the house is worth more than £250,000 then the second to die might face a bill when they inherited the first half WHITING: Because the instinctive position for Ken and his partner is that the first to die leaves their half to the other, perfectly normal, second to die leaves it to charity – no inheritance tax. But you’ve just got to watch the values and watch that little trip wire. LEWIS: But it would be difficult David Rothenberg to leave half the house to charity in the first place because the charity may well then say fine sell the house and give us the money? ROTHENBERG: I think that’s right. What’s the house worth Ken do you think? KEN: The house is worth about £185,000 plus the money that we’ve got in the bank and invested. LEWIS: So it’s not a problem in this case then? KEN: Well with the full total it is – it’s over the 250 odd thousand. LEWIS: But not over £500,000? KEN: Oh no no not over £500,000 no MARRIOTT: Do you own it jointly Ken? KEN: Yeah LEWIS: Okay, so I think – I think that’s the answer isn’t it – leave it to each other as long as it’s within the £250,000 and then the survivor leaves WHITING: Your half is within the £250,000 – which in Ken’s situation it is but I’ve certainly come across very difficult situations and more valuable properties where it’s a real problem in this situation. ROTHENBERG: And as John says make a will, each of you – it’s absolutely vital. LEWIS: Yeah make a will – it’s a good lesson – indeed it’s Make a Will Month isn’t it next month, so we should be talking about that. Thanks for your call Ken, very interesting. Just read an email here from James who’s written to us from cyberspace. He wants to know if you can give a family company which we’ve partly dealt with or company shares to someone as long as you live for another seven years? Well what’s the position with company shares? ROTHENBERG: I think you need to know a little bit more about the company. If it’s an ordinary trading company then again these very favourable rules saying you don’t effectively pay any tax at all on the gift apply. But you have to be a little careful because not all family companies are what the Inland Revenue consider to be trading companies. And the problem usually is when you have a property investment or share investment company. Unfortunately for those there are no special exemptions and the value of the shares is subject to inheritance tax just like any other asset. LEWIS: So this would be someone who’d done a succession of buy to lets or something like that? ROTHENBERG: If you like LEWIS: That kind of thing. And Suzanne, what about farm land – there are special exemptions for that aren’t there? MARRIOTT: That’s right. As David was saying about business property relief, the same applies for agricultural property and provided you’ve owned the farm for two years then agricultural property relief may apply to 100% relief and in other cases 50% relief, so that’s worth looking into. LEWIS: And you only have to own it for two years, so John Whiting is it worth buying a farm in your last years of life and then avoiding inheritance tax that way? WHITING: Well let’s put it this way it has some possibilities providing you comply with the circumstances, but one of the particular issues that your questioner might have Paul is if you do give a business property away during life certainly as David’s outlined there can be no inheritance tax implications but there’s a trip wire – if the person who takes it then decides I don’t want this business property, sells it and makes fine with the money, inheritance tax can trip in those circumstances, so it’s one to take advice on. ROTHENBERG: And they’re particularly complex rules which I think are too complicated for now when you have trusts involved with business. LEWIS: Okay well we’ll leave that for another day David thank you. Esther in Hertfordshire now has a question. Esther, your question? ESTHER: Yes, good afternoon. It’s about trusts. My husband and I have made a trust for our two offspring one of whom is at the moment in a happily married situation. The other is in a long term live-in situation and we have no contact with that side of the relationship. Therefore I am very unhappy at the thought that if he were not to survive to inherit that that share would go to that person and their offspring who we don’t approve of. Is there anyway to block this or to leave some sort of clause that it would revert to the other child who is the other beneficiary? LEWIS: Right I suppose Suzanne this kind of thing does happen with marriage and remarriage though in this case this couple from what I gather aren’t married. What can Esther do? MARRIOTT: Esther is this a trust you’ve set up now or is a trust that’s going to come into affect when you die – it’s in your will? ESTHER: Yeah it’s going to come into effect when we both die. MARRIOTT: Right, so it’s a will trust? ESTHER: Yes it’s a will trust. MARRIOTT: Right, well have you included spouses in the beneficiaries? ESTHER: No, it would go to both children one of whom I have grandchildren by - that one who I would be quite happy for it to go on to. MARRIOTT: Right. Do you know if it’s a discretionary trust – so it’s up to the trustees who exactly benefits? ESTHER: Yes MARRIOTT: Well then you’ve done as much probably as you can because it’s really in the hands of the trustees and what you really need to do is make sure you’ve written a letter of wishes to go with that will trust so that your trustees who are the people who are going to manage the trust after both you and your husband have passed away really know that you never want it to go to anyone that is a spouse or a boyfriend/girlfriend of your children, and obviously they’re not beneficiaries, they don’t have any entitlement to the trust. LEWIS: So the important thing is to write a letter of wishes with the trust so people know exactly what you want and really if you do that you can do what you like, specify people, leave them out, whatever. Let’s go to Anastasia now in Deptford – if you could just be fairly brief Anastasia because we are beginning to run out of time? ANASTASIA: Okay, my parents’ sole asset mostly is a house which is worth quite a lot cos it’s in the East Anglian area which is going up and they’re old enough for me not to want them to move and they need capital and it seems sensible for me to actually buy outright a portion of the house just on the market value. Are there any trips in that and can I just lose the money if I get it wrong? LEWIS: David? ROTHENBERG: Well the first thing is there’s going to be a nasty stamp duty charge. Why don’t you just lend them the money with proper documentation? – that’ll give them the cash – much easier, perfectly affective from an inheritance tax point of view. ANASTASIA: Well it won’t be the whole of the property so it’ll be below the stamp duty threshold and I was hoping just that if I bought a portion then it would bring the house below the £250,000? LEWIS: John Whiting your view – 10 seconds? WHITING: Yes, it’s got some potential but unfortunately I mean it can be easier just to give the money or to lend them it as David says – it saves a lot of messing about but one to explore. LEWIS: Okay, we’ve got a few seconds left and just somebody’s sent us an email about the £3000 limit saying that as long as you give away money that comes from your normal standard of living that is also exempt from inheritance tax. WHITING: We touched on that LEWIS: Which is true so £3000 or whatever you can afford from your – your income without affecting your standard of living. Anyway it’s a complicated subject. That’s all we have time for. My thanks to Suzanne Marriott from Charles Russell solicitors, David Rothenberg from Blick Rothenberg and John Whiting from Price Waterhouse Coopers. Thanks of course to you for your calls. I’m sorry if you didn’t get on air. There’s more information about inheritance tax on our website – bbc.co.uk/moneybox where you can also contact me and my colleagues on the programme or the BBC Action Line has all that information – 0800 044 044 0800 044 044 I’m back at noon on Saturday with MONEY BOX and Vincent Duggleby’s here next Monday to take your calls on MONEY BOX LIVE BACK ANNO: That was Paul Lewis and the producer was Louise Greenwood.