News Article - The Budget 2011 and how it affects leaving money to a charity
The Chancellor has introduced a new incentive to leaving to a charity in your Will, saying “I want to make giving 10 per cent of your legacy to charity the norm in our country”. For deaths after 6 April 2012, if you have left 10 per cent of the net value of your estate to charity then the Inheritance Tax rate application to the balance of your estate will reduce from 40 per cent to 36 per cent. In addition the charitable bequest is already exempted from Inheritance Tax. The exact details of how this will be implemented have yet to be worked out but it could provide a real boost to the charitable sector.
The Inheritance Tax allowance has been frozen until April 2015 at £325,000. From that date onwards any increases will be linked with the Consumer Prices Index.
Our Will, Trust and Probate Specialist, Mrs Kathryn Sykes, says that “If you would like to take advantage of this tax planning opportunity, now is the perfect time. We are currently running our Charity Will Scheme, under which you receive a third off the cost of making Wills, if you leave a legacy to one of the eighteen local charities that we support. In addition we are also members of the Cancer Research and Institute of Cancer Research Free Wills Schemes.”
