Inheritance tax allowance doubled

(10-10-07) - The value of assets that couples can leave behind when they die without incurring inheritance tax has been doubled in Chancellor Alistair Darling’s pre-budget report.

Married couples can now leave combined assets worth £600,000, rising to £700,000 by 2010.

Mr Darling made the change his main selling point and said that with 97 per cent of homes worth less than the new combined threshold, some 12 million married couples and civil partners could now benefit from the move.

However, while the benefit will be backdated for widows and widowers, allowing them to take advantage of the combined allowance even though they’ve already lost their partner, some analysts criticised Labour for not extending the allowance to non-married and non-civil partnership couples or siblings living together.

Only last week the Conservatives unveiled plans to only tax estates worth more than £1 million if it came to power.

Other points in his pre-budget report included the bringing forward of proposals to help lenders provide more fixed-rate mortgages for 10 years and longer, an increase in pensions credits of £5 a week for single people from April 2008 and £7.65 for couples, and the Chancellor said he would make statement on Northern Rock later this week.

Compare Savings accounts

Submit this article:

add to del.icio.us	add to digg	add to furl
add to reddit	add to Technorati	add to Blinklist
add to StumbleUpon	add to squidoo	add to ma.gnolia
add to Yahoo! My Web	add to Netscape	add to Fark