UK Inheritance Tax Part 3

Regarding last will and testaments (LWT), there are two main things to consider:
1. The use of trust funds. Where a LWT deals with modest legacies or small specific gifts given to children, there should not be any hassle. The problems may arise where there is a trust fund that the children will get at a specified age because the rules may increase the amount of tax that will be payable in the future.
2. LWTs that create Interest in Possession (IIP) trusts that are defined as where the beneficiary is entitled to the income of the fund but the capital is held in trust for future generations. The important thing to remember here is where the IIP does not begin immediately following the death of the person who has made the LWT. An example is the LWT of a man who leaves an IIP to his wife and then to his children for their lives with the capital then divided up between any grandchildren. The tax implications will not change for the wife but the children would be badly affected because they would not start immediately on the man’s death.
As mentioned above, it is very important that it is stated that many LWTs do not need re-writing as they will not be affected by the tax changes. Typically, this is where all the gifts are outright - i.e. when the assets will be given immediately to the person who is to receive them as well as LWTs where all the property not given outright is held by wholly discretionary trust. Also, there are LWTs in which each and every IIP meets two conditions. One is that is starts immediately following the death of the person who made it and the other is that when it finishes the assets pass straight to someone that can receive them immediately.
Now that people have had time to study the new Finance Act 2006, most of the new propositions and implications have been understood. The most important thing is NOT to die whilst intestate and to make sure that assets go where they are meant to. This is especially pertinent to those who have assets overseas or work abroad. Despite the new Finance Act there are still advantages in getting assets into trust and insuring against the worst of the ravages of IHT.
What can definitely be seen from all of this is that even if a present LWT looks to comply with all the new regulations it is worth an hour of time to sit down with a professional person to discuss things as it could save your estate hundreds of thousands of pounds - if not more. The qualified advisor must know his business though - for instance, the Bereaved Child Trust does absolutely nothing and is not worth the paper it is written on. However, the NRB discretionary trusts and IOU powers for the debt in charge schemes are still okay. This is because they have always been taxed in the same way and there are no new changes in the 2006 Act. To expand further on this:
- Get an NRB discretionary trust
- The IOU powers will allow the trustees to accept a value of a property or asset instead of cash. This is very useful if the estate is asset rich and cash poor
- To maximize both NRBs create an IOU or debt in charge scheme.
What this means is, rather than put cash into the trust, you put the deceased’s value of the share of the family home, for example, which would be repayable on the second death from the sale proceeds of the house. This is very useful for High Net Worth estates where the assets are giving a better return than they would if they were sold, converted into cash and re-invested.
There are yet other ways to save money for your children. Whilst the new Act has killed off most of the schemes that allowed grandparents to gift under trust assets to their grandchildren, this does not apply to parents. It is possible to save IHT by getting your LWT right. Just by setting up a discretionary trust on the first death whereby the IHT NRB (basically, the amount you can leave tax free) is put into this trust until the death of the second spouse. It is at this point the property will go to the beneficiaries but not through the estate of the second spouse. This means that the estate is not so big which means less is subject to possible IHT. NRB trusts can save 40% of the actual NRB thus resulting not giving HM Government, potentially, hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Out of the many changes the new act has brought in, the one that has most parents up in arms is that it is no longer possible to stipulate when a child can inherit if they are over the age of eighteen. Basically, before the new Act, if you thought that this age was too young you could nominate an age where the estate could be accessed. This is no longer possible without incurring tax.
A LWT is not just something that can help save tax. It is something that enables your loved ones to ensure who gets what when you pass away. It is not always the case that if you die intestate then your spouse will automatically get everything.
If someone is living outside of the UK then it is usually best to have an LWT in each and every country that there are any assets. Seek advice from someone who has experience and qualifications in that country. Remember that a trust, if set up correctly, can operate worldwide. The most important thing is not to delay. Most of the good tax planning trusts can still be used when anyone wants to make an LWT.
By getting your Last Will and Testament sorted now, it will give you peace of mind and make things a lot easier for those you love. Even if you think your present LWT is okay, still get it checked out - it will only take an hour of your time. If nothing else, it will at least confirm that what you now have is adequate. Just remember that IHT is the only legally avoidable tax in the UK - why not get your own back on Gordon Brown?

The above data and research was compiled from sources believed to be reliable. However, neither MBMG International Ltd nor its officers can accept any liability for any errors or omissions in the above article nor bear any responsibility for any losses achieved as a result of any actions taken or not taken as a consequence of reading the above article. For more information please contact Graham Macdonald on [email protected]@mbmg-international.com

Snap Shots: by Harry Flashman

Technology is sometimes too smart?

We live in a technological age. Everything from your computer to your TV remote features ‘drop-down’ menus, through which you scroll and then press the ‘select’ button or whatever. Even resetting the digital clock in the family car requires an instruction manual. With cameras, the digital revolution has brought us the dreaded drop-down menu as well, plus other claimed advances.
These claimed advances include super little plastic bits called ‘memory chips’, onto which you store hundreds of your photos, to download to your computer when you feel inclined, and print even later. No more need to carry film canisters that store the negative film with a measly 36 images on each one. Hooray for technology!
However, it isn’t quite as good as it is cracked up to be! My photographic friend Ernie Kuehnelt brought a letter to my attention that had been written to the Bangkok Post, in which the letter writer was pointing out the fact that when he used to travel he would take 12 rolls of print film with him, which gave him a minimum of 432 frames. This needed the power of one fully charged NiCad battery and he was set up for the trip.
But technology has arrived and now he needs three memory chips to cover the same number of shots, with each chip costing around B. 3,000. He also needs much more than one fully charged battery, so needs to take additional ones, and a battery charger. If he wished to save on chips being carried, he could download his single chip to a computer, meaning that he would have to carry a lap-top as well. The accoutrements of technology becoming both space consuming, and expensive.
The writer also found that he was now totally dependent upon a source of electricity, mentioning that sometimes this is not available as in some places in India, parts of China, and remote areas in Russia, Tibet and Nepal and many other countries. Suddenly, technology and its drop-down menus is not so user-friendly as it is claimed, and in fact has some serious limitations. The battery technology is definitely lagging behind. The writer states, “It tickles me pink to know it (technology) is so easily defeated and fallible.”
Now it should be pointed out that the writer said he was forced to go digital as his print film camera was deemed obsolescent after being in his possession for 12 years. “Just think of the simplistic beauty of a print film camera. Point, (auto) focus and shoot,” he wrote nostalgically, almost as if he had been forced at gun-point into the new technology.
Up till then, I felt very sorry for the writer, but what was being glossed over is that print film, and print film cameras are not dead (yet). By using a print film camera, you can have all that simplicity, but in the final step of D&P, you can ask the photoshop not to print, but download to a CD, thus getting the advantages of digital technology, without all the froo-frahs that goes with the digital technology.
So what camera am I using? A venerable old Nikon FM2N. A totally mechanical camera, but I do use the inbuilt light meter with its button battery that I change each year (whether it needs it or not)! No drop-down menus, but handy rotary buttons on the top of the camera which I can turn to change shutter speed and the ISO of the film. A rotating ring on the lens barrel gives me complete (manual) control of the aperture too. Advance the film by working the lever. How simple is that? Unlike the letter writer, I do not have to carry spare batteries either.
Returning to the letter, “My new digital has buttons, bells, lights, menus to choose from, enough to rival a Boeing 747 cockpit. Who needs it all? Is it really necessary?” he asks. It is simply not necessary.
I really do feel that by going to a high quality mechanical camera and film, returning the results in digital (CD) form, I am getting the best of both worlds. I am getting the writer’s “simplistic beauty” plus the advantage of digital storage and retrieval.

Modern Medicine: by Dr. Iain Corness, Consultant

Flying away from Songkran

Songkran is coming and my feet are getting wet! And so will the rest of me! So like so many expats in Thailand, Songkran is the time to think about getting out of the Kingdom. Unfortunately, all the countries surrounding Thailand celebrate their own version of Songkran too, so if you want to stay dry, then you have to look a little further afield.
This means a plane trip for most, as the slow boats to China are just that, ‘slow’. However, whilst you might get wet staying at home, there are a few medical problems associated with plane travel. And this has nothing to do with the kiss and tell ex-Qantas hostie and Ralph Fiennes.
The last time I flew, in the pocket in the back of the seat in front of me, my carrier had a little brochure entitled In-flight Healthcare. It was one of those multi-language numbers, and with my chosen carrier being a Taiwanese airline, English is not the number one language. It was also certainly not the native language of the compiler of the brochure!
The range of conditions covered was certainly extensive, right from immune deficiency through to pregnancy (the Mile-High club has its dangers, as well as being outed in public, it seems) and EVA did not like ladies flying with a pregnancy greater than 32 weeks, without clearance from their own EVA Air doctor - so ladies, be warned.
They even managed to touch on Public Health and Hygiene issues such as, “Though the cabin air quality is better than that of home and office, a cabin is still a public area where contamination is possible. We suggest patients suffered [sic] from contagious diseases not to take any plane.” They did not suggest to where you should take the plane! Of course, in such enclosed confines, virulent viruses can run wild, and if the person next to you is sniffling, find another seat if you can.
I must say I did find the advice under the heading “Heart Disease” somewhat pessimistic where they claim that “Heart attack occurs twice as often in the air than on the ground. Not to take air travel, if you have recently suffered from a heart attack.” I do not know where they got their statistics from, but I doubt the “twice as often” claim. However, if you do have cardiac problems, discuss the forthcoming trip with your cardiologist first.
Probably of most use was the section on Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) and now sometimes called the Economy syndrome. Avoiding alcohol, cigarettes and caffeine and drinking plenty of water is all good advice, but this is certainly difficult if you are flying with an airline which has free booze!
The brochure suggests doing aerobic exercises in your seat, especially leg ones, but in actual fact it is a lot easier and simpler to just get up every hour and just walk right around the plane. (Unless you are flying in a Cessna, walking right around the cabin is a fair step.) For this reason, I always ask for an aisle seat as you can get in and out more easily. On the stroll drink a couple of glasses of water and your chances of getting a DVT are really very small.
Other helpful hints included a section on taking your medication with you on board. For people who have diabetes for example, where it is necessary to have continuation of doses, it is no good if your tablets are in the hold! Another small, but important item was the advice to ask for seats close to the wings if you suffer from motion sickness. Fortunately I do not suffer from that, I only suffer from abject fear, for which the brochure offered no advice!

Learn to Live to Learn: with Andrew Watson

Implementing the IBO Mission Statement

Over the course of the coming weeks, I crave your indulgence as I return to a subject which for me is both a professional and a personal passion; the delivery of the IBO mission statement through academic programmes in international schools. But where do professional and personal worlds meet? How far is ideology tempered by pragmatism? As always, I welcome your views.
IBO mission
statement (2002)
“The International Baccalaureate Organization aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect.
To this end the IBO works with schools, governments and international organizations to develop challenging programmes of international education and rigorous assessment.
These programmes encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right.”
Ideology
The place of ideology (‘visionary speculation’, COD, 1995) is central to both ideas about education (“Education: The necessary Utopia,” Delors, 1998) and international schools; “A magnet school with an international bent prepares its students to follow their dreams - wherever they might lead.” (Schnaiberg, 1995). At the centre of an educationalist’s professional passion, one might very well hope, if not expect, to find their ideology. Individuals who believe that the function, purpose and duty of education is to make a positive difference in the world (Ghandi, Delors, Walker, Peterson, to name but a few) are by no means alone in having come to the (perhaps naïve) conclusion that the principle practical hope for our world in solving conflict and the associated cancers of ignorance, prejudice, greed and hatred, rests with education.

IB students - consumers.

The IBO mission statement is the embodiment of a “vocabulary of international education” (Walker, 2002) replete with critical, compassionate thinking, cultural understanding (although these terms require clarification) which suggests that its protagonists share some sense of ethical absolutism. Much like the UWC mission statement, the IBO’s is one which could be considered far more ‘ideological’ than ‘pragmatic’. (Hayden, Thompson & Williams, 2002)
Ideologues (‘people occupied with an idea’, OED, 2004) tend to ‘aim for the stars’ and Delors (1998) and Tsolidis (2002) reflect this as they ‘imagine the best’ as a starting point for education. They celebrate the fact that their recommendations are utopian, whilst asking the reader to consider the positive benefits of adopting a positive mental attitude. However, as a result of my experiences and conversations in international schools and related reading, I have become increasingly concerned that my assumption that idealism, which I (like Tsolidis, 2002) had hitherto imagined was, or should be, a characteristic of the teaching profession, might be misplaced and that the mission statement of the IBO, might not after all be welcome, even within ‘IBO’ authorised schools or within those which aspire to become part of an increasingly less exclusive club. Nonetheless, for a variety of reasons, some of which I hope to examine in detail, I must agree for a number of reasons with Tsolidis (2002) that, “The capacity to imagine a better society and believe that as teachers we can contribute to its realization is a characteristic of teaching and one which is increasingly under threat”.
Education, values and the market culture
Where do the threats come from and in what forms? What happens between hyperbole and delivery, rhetoric and reality? Why the disparity, the disillusion? Perhaps the answers lie in the bigger picture? An investigation into IB world schools, not in isolation but in the context of global post-modern economic reality, seems to suggest conflicting ideologies are at work. Contrast on the one hand, from a globalist capitalist perspective, the dynamics of the role of international education institutions as purveyors of a commodity and on the other (in contradistinction) what Tsolidis (2002) suggests is the idealistic imperative of education to “re-establish” the link between education and what she calls “the social good”. Whether or not the link was ever there, I suggest, is open to question. In what can loosely be described as business speak, teachers are producers and the local community, as Bowe, Ball and Gold (1992) propose, the recipients of the product; they are the consumers.
Are two such apparently bipolar perspectives reconcilable? Or are they mutually exclusive? It would be difficult to argue that both did not exist simultaneously, although such co-existence, it would appear, is by no means harmonious. So a good question might be, “to what extent does one affect the other?” I rather like Marx’s assertion that ‘the mode of production in material life determines the social, political and intellectual life processes in general.” (Marx, 1968 edn, p.356) Thus a society structured on capitalist principles gives rise to an educational system inevitably and by design, almost as a necessary condition, based on competition. It could reasonably be argued that pragmatism (a philosophy that evaluates assertions solely by their practical consequences and bearing on human interests) is a highly appropriate approach to take to education in the prevailing global economic circumstances.
Bowe, Ball and Gold (1992 p53) are stark in their appraisal that the “ideology and political rhetoric of the market, as directed towards the welfare state, celebrates the superiority of commercial planning and commercial purposes and forms of organization against those of public service and social welfare.” This infers two things. First, that the ‘market’ is incompatible with the provision of social welfare and second, that organisations which do not embrace organisational practices synonymous with ‘market culture’ are inferior.
However, if schools, by providing education, must surely be seen as a ‘public service’, working with ‘social welfare’ in mind, then it can be argued that a for-profit, proprietorial private school which embraces ‘the market’ might be an effective, efficient model for the ‘sale’ of education. Handy (1996) Drucker (1955) and Morita (1987) all acknowledge the universal centrality of ‘good organisational practice’ as a means of delivering a quality product. It can be strongly argued that such good practice, related to systems, structures and the management of people, is just as applicable to a factory producing zippers as it is to an international school producing IB students, especially as both exist, whether they like it or not, in a globalised free market economy.
Andrew Watson is a Management Consultant for Garden International Schools in Thailand. andreww @gardenrayong.com
All proceeds from this column are donated to the Esther Benjamins Trust. www.ebtrust.org.uk email: [email protected]
Next week: The need for good practice