Inheritance Planning

When is the right time to start Inheritance Planning? There is no particular date by which one needs to have commenced or completed the process but there are a few key considerations worth being conscious of:

• Where passing on a business as part of the plan there are specific reliefs which are more generous up to age 66 than they are thereafter
• Where one wishes to pay towards the future Inheritance tax liability of their children the policy to do this typically needs to be established before the person reaches 75 years of age.

The vast majority of people’s wealth is typically passed from parent to child. To that end there are thresholds in existence which allow, at present, up to €320,000 to be passed from parent to child without any exposure to Capital Acquisitions Tax on same.

There are other less generous thresholds for other relations as well.

Whilst the financial and tax consequences can be outlined and understood a very important aspect to the whole plan is the trust that those giving have in those that are receiving. This can never be emphasised enough.

There are many elaborate structures (including Trusts) available which can be utilised to pass on value without control. However, without the trust factor existing they can often be futile discussions.

In any year anyone can gift up to €3,000 to any other person without there being any tax implications.

This relief is very much underutilised but is often the simplest to put in place.

The above is not an exhaustive list. However, the key consideration is the wishes of the person passing on the wealth and how it best suits their circumstances. The sooner the conversation starts typically the better the answer that can be achieved.