Double inheritance tax

J

jdeacon

Guest
I wrote my will myself when I was younger. This year I thought I'd better get it done by a solicitor; so I went to my nearest solicitor's office.

One of the reasons I didn't trust my DIY will, was that I'd read you should guard against double inheritance tax. Should we all be in the same road accident, for example, and one of the benefactors dies after I do, there should be a clause, "... surviving me by 90 days ..." or some such. This way you wouldn't get the situation where, say, one child inherts their share and then dies passing their share on to the remaining child but with a second amount of inheritance tax to be paid.

Unfortunately the solicitor seemed to be, well thick to put it bluntly. I explained my concern and she nodded, but then put nothing in the draft. I explained my concern again and left here to redraft. There was still nothing there however. Each time I tried to explain, she tried to reassure me that my share of our house would revert to the children. I simply couldn't get it through to her that I wasn't worrying about the house. It was quite surreal and frustrating. I gave up in the end. I shall have to go back to DIY or another solitictor.

Unless I'm wrong and this isn't a valid worry. Has anyone else heard of such a provision?
 
It's called a commorientes clause. For once I agree with Brendan- you should be able to have trust in your solicitor. If this one didn't work for you, find another.
 
Thanks for the replies. I shall try another solicitor, armed with the knowledge of the name of the clause.
 
I am sure that a person could argue that if a number of people were injured in an accident, then pass away over a period of time as a result of that accident they would have to pay inheritance tax on each inheritance as it passes down the line.
It is worrying that your solicitor couldn't grasp what you were trying to say and that you have wasted time and money dealing with a plank.
 
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