What's the logic of inheritance tax?

[bertie]

Can anyone explain the logic behind inheritance tax?

You buy something with your tax earned income, then upon your death you get taxed again to give it to someone.

Surely that's taxing you twice?

Which administration brought it in? It was in the early 1900s if I remeber.

[bertie]

Glad to see I'm not alone in thinking this is a totaly unfair tax.

And JSG, I think your views may well change as you grow older and certainly if you have kids.

Personaly I take the view that if I work and earn my money, then it's up to me what I do with it, and if that's securing my kids future that's my decision.

How you can say that's the same as ambulance chasers and work shy spongers (both of which I deteste intensely) is beyond my comprehension.

[bertie]

It's destroyed an awful lot of fantastic houses and estates, which in my opinion is a travesty, but some would call a sucess.

People have mentioned tax burdens to their wifes if they die....unless I'm mistaken there is no inheritance tax between spouses.

Also people mention seting up companies etc to avoid it. The is no IHT on shares of "trading" companies but if you have for instance a company that owns property, that is regarded as an "investment" comapny and is subject to IHT.

If anyone knows of any good ways to avoid please do tell!!!

[bertie]

The danger here is that if you don't let people be sucessful by imposing cripling tax regimes, they all bugger off to somewhere else, as many people including JSG have suggested they will do, and you're left with a country full of dead heads and drop outs.

[bertie]

VAT, IR, Contributions agencey.......all haven't moved on from hitting people over the head and knicking the money...and all a scary law unto themselves.

[bertie]

Yes still around

[bertie]

popegregory said:

I heard the dial up noise in my head when I opened this

Odd choice of words like “hideous” for inheritance tax. Why on earth would a corpse care even slightly about having money taken off them?

Does it make some people angry because they wanted free money?

I see it very differently.

19 years on my views haven’t changed from my original post