Why inheritance is the dirty secret of the middle classes – harder to talk about than sex

Word salad you say, and then follow up with “you contribute OR take, often both at some stage in your life”. Your point is meaningless, we’re all aware that we give and take and all the rest of it. I didn’t have to pay for my education for example, funding for education is provided for by the State out of public funds, which are paid into out of general taxation, including income tax, inheritance tax, corporation tax.

It’s how a society functions, by wealth redistribution. The basics of this debate is get rid of your wealth while you’re alive and pass it onto your children and grandchildren in the most tax efficient way possible, and then they won’t be hit with an enormous tax burden on their inheritance when you do pop your clogs!

No it's not.

If you have a 500k house and leave it to one child, that child will be liable to a small tax.

If you have a 500k house and you leave it to two children, neither will pay any tax (unless they already exhausted their lifetime allowances)

The tax system doesn't give a bollix what your, the now dead person, circumstances are or were. You're dead. You can't own anything. It is all now in your estate

Depends on the "nixer". Plenty of people make a lot from them. Depends on your definition of the word though. You can define it as something where no tax is paid if you want

Sure there is even the odd story about teachers getting stung over giving grinds. Never mind fellas on the dole and, in reality, putting up extensions.

Not all nixers are cash-in-hand either.

Someone else paid tax on that income. Now it's the beneficiaries turn

I was explaining to the poster why it is not the dead person who is getting taxed (as they appear to think)

There is no law forcing you to liquidise an asset. There are other mechanisms by which you can acquire money besides being gifted it from your parents. You could, for example, have a job which pays you money and you could use that money to pay inheritance tax.

I'd be very happy to see the tax free threshold for inheritance tax abolished and it all taxed at the recipients marginal rate .

It's nonsense that it should be treated differently, it's income to those who receive it and I say this as someone who it seems will have considerably less issues planning for retirement when I receive inheritance from my parents.

Problem there is that you're assuming either a) the inheritance is cash; or b) the person inheriting already has substantial cash reserves.

What if they inherit the family house and decide they want to move into it and live there? They have to stump up for the privilege? What percentage do you think they should be paying on the inheritance?

If they are smart, and move into the house before the parent passes away, they inherit it all tax free.

If you don't plan, and you inherit a very valuable house which you want to move into, you won't need your own house and can sell that if you want. If you are in your 50's and don't have a house or any savings and you inherit a 3 million Euro house for example, then maybe it would be better for you to liquidate it anyway

It's 33% on the value about 350k or thereabouts. A person inheriting the average house will pay very little.

It’s not a tax on middle class savings though, it’s a tax that everyone is obligated to pay based upon the fact that they have inherited an asset which is considered an income - everyone pays tax on any income received.

The State is entitled to tax, the children or grandchildren or their spouse or whomever is the beneficiary of the inheritance is the person who is obligated to pay any outstanding taxes, not the person who has died, and because nobody who has died is paying any further tax, the idea of the right not to pay any further taxes just doesn’t arise.