Families spooked by reports that the capital gains tax ‘uplift on death’ could be scrapped should treat the speculation as a prompt to get organised, not a reason to offload property in a hurry, personal finance experts have warned.
The intervention from personal finance firm thimbl follows reports suggesting a future government could remove the uplift rule, under which someone inheriting a property is treated as acquiring it at its market value on the date of death rather than the price originally paid. Scrapping it could leave some families facing significantly larger tax bills when they come to sell an inherited home.
The reports land amid a febrile debate about how Britain taxes wealth, with the Treasury already weighing reforms to inheritance and capital gains tax and the wealth question now hanging over British business sharpening attention on family homes, estates and succession plans.
For business owners, whose wealth is often bound up in bricks and mortar and whose estates can blur the line between family and firm, the temptation to act first and think later is understandable. It is also, the experts caution, usually the wrong instinct.
Joe, personal finance expert at thimbl, said: “Whenever reports suggest families could face higher tax bills, it’s understandable that people feel anxious, particularly when it involves something as significant as the family home.
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