Removal of three month post death gifting out of trust restriction
On the death of an individual, where the Will provided a gift to a discretionary trust, the aim of this was usually for the surviving spouse to ultimately benefit from the trust. However, there was a trap in disposing of the estate –under section 144 of the Inheritance Tax Act, where a gift is made before three months from the death of the testator, it was not read back into the Will as a gift from the spouse, and therefore spousal exemption was not available.
The new rule removes the requirement to wait three months from the gifting of trust assets to a surviving spouse – in other words, spousal exemption will apply to gifts made from trust within that initial three-month period from death.
This message was added on Monday 23rd February 2015
