The Skandia International IHT calculator is a tool to assist you when assessing your clients UK IHT liability so you can advise what steps need to be taken in order to mitigate any potential tax due.
When calculating the value of someone’s estate it is important to include all the assets they own a share of and those they own outright. The calculator provides a comprehensive list of the different types of assets that people own including the family home, investments and savings, gifts that have been made by that person where they have retained a right to benefit from that gift, as well as any income received from assets held in trust.
In order to calculate the net value of the estate the client’s liabilities also need to be taken into account. These include any outstanding mortgage debt, bank loans, credit cards and funeral expenses.
The calculator gives you the flexibility to input the nil-rate band applicable to your client before calculating your client’s net taxable estate and your client’s potential IHT liability. For example, your client may be able to benefit from the transferable nil-rate band rules.
A useful function is the ability to show how much of the taxable estate the beneficiaries will receive after IHT has been paid. It also allows you to compare this with how much IHT may be paid in the future taking into account growth on the value of the estate and if the value of nil-rate band increases in the future.
It may not be surprising to know that when someone dies the biggest beneficiary of the estate can, in some circumstances, be the UK Treasury. The Skandia International IHT calculator can be used as a useful tool to provide you and your clients with an illustrative example of your client’s liability to IHT. It can also be used as a basis of ongoing discussions with your clients when considering financial planning opportunities and the mitigation of any existing and future potential IHT liability.
The IHT calculator can be accessed here (excel file).
Please note that it is possible that the security in your version of excel does not allow you to run the macros included in the spreadsheet above. If this happens, you need to change your settings in excel so that the calculator functions properly. Here are instructions on how to change your settings:
- Open Excel
- Click on the Tools menu at the top of the screen
- Then Macro
- Then Security
- You should see a list of 4 settings - Very high, High, Medium, or Low. If your PC is set to Very high or High then it will block this macro.
- Please set to Medium and the file will run the macro
The information provided in this article is not intended to offer advice.
It is based on Skandia's interpretation of the relevant law and HM Revenue and Customs practice at the date shown at the top of this article. While we believe this interpretation to be correct, we cannot guarantee it. Tax relief and tax treatment of assets may change in the future. Skandia cannot accept any responsibility for any action taken or refrained from being taken as a result of the information contained in this article.