IHTM14503 - How lifetime transfers are brought into the charge for tax: cumulation with the death estate

Calculate tax on the death estate by cumulating the values transferred by chargeable transfers in the seven preceding years.

Cumulable chargeable transfers include both

Example

Trevor makes the following transfers (net of exemptions and reliefs):

50,000 to son in January 1992

75,000 to discretionary trust in June 1996

50,000 to daughter in January 1998

Trevor dies in October 2000 with a death estate of 200,000

The cumulable value for tax on the death is

June 96

Jan 98

Death estate

 

75,000

50,000

200,000

325,000

The gift in January 92 is outside seven years of the death and so is omitted.

If the lifetime transfers exceed the IHT nil rate band before adding the death estate, you will need to

  • deduct any tax attributable to the lifetime transfers from the total tax charge. In effect, the tax on the death estate will be simply 40% x chargeable value of the death estate.

You will also need to separately consider cumulation on PETs and immediately chargeable transfers themselves. If a lifetime transfer exceeds the nil rate band after cumulation, tax is directly chargeable on that transfer. It is “chargeable in its own right”.

The sections later in this manual will guide you on how to consider cumulation and calculate tax on

  • PETs (IHTM14511),
  • immediately chargeable transfers (IHTM14531), and
  • additional charges on immediately chargeable transfers because of a death(IHTM14571)