Leave a lasting legacy and benefit your estate at the same time.
There can be sound financial reasons why it makes sense to leave a legacy to The Donkey Sanctuary in your Will.
If you own your own house, this could well mean that the value of your Estate will be above the Inheritance Tax threshold.
You may be able to considerably reduce the amount of tax your estate pays on your death – or even remove it altogether.
As a general rule:
- Gifts to registered charities are wholly exempt from Inheritance Tax.
- If you leave all of your Estate to charities, no Inheritance Tax will be paid from your Estate at all and
- If you choose to leave part of your Estate to relatives and friends, you can reduce the Inheritance Tax payable by also making a bequest to a registered charity.
What’s more, the Budget in March 2011 gave a further incentive to charitable giving, by announcing that if you choose to leave 10% or more of your Estate to charity, your Estate will benefit from a cut in the actual rate of Inheritance Tax payable.
Specifically, anyone leaving 10% or more of their estate to charity will have their inheritance tax rate reduced from 40% to 36% from April 2012.
This really is great news for charities and a move which we hope will boost significantly the number of people who leave a lasting legacy to their favourite causes. Very encouragingly, the Chancellor went on to say in his speech that ‘we want giving 10% to charity in legacies to become the norm’.
If you would like more information about how leaving money to The Donkey Sanctuary can help you reduce Inheritance Tax please contact our Legacy Office on 01395 578222.
