Do you lend or gift money to your adult children?

[Nextones]

Hi,

for those of you with adult children, do you ever loan/gift them money?

if so, does it cause any issues- not repaying etc?

Such a waste of time isn’t it. Question posed, no return…

I am increasingly checking OP engagement before posting.

@wheresthesnowgone I asked the same thing yesterday morning. There'll probably be an article in a newspaper in about a week's time.

I have gifted my eldest son quite a lot of money and don’t want it back. On another occasion I lent him £300 towards his new car and I needed it back because of various other expenses that month. He gave me back the £300. He knew that wasn’t a gift and he could have it until pay day but as soon as he had it back I needed it back. I think if the terms are clear then people should pay you back.

I have never been gifted anything from parents other than normal Christmas/ birthday gifts . They don’t have the money and it’s never been in their mindset to gift adult working DC . Just mum now and I’m the one bailing her out . New boiler , vets fees , unexpected bill etc etc .

We gifted money to our child from birth so they had a large deposit, equal to 20% of the cost, when they bought their home. They've had other gifts to set them up. We need to survive a little longer but it will all be clear of IHT before long. Both our child and their spouse have well paid jobs, they dont need gifts now and it's well past time they stood on their own feet. The grandchild has been gifted 9k so far, debating whether to gift more when they will get it at 18 and could blow it all on drugs.

IME parents give what they can but there is a wide variation in that, some would struggle to pay for a meal.

Upping the CGT exemption would encourage more gifting.

Upping the CGT exemption would encourage more gifting. Why should more gifting be encouraged?

@Gardenhabit Generally better for the economy to have money in circulation.

I let youngest DS borrow money to buy a newer car to get to work when his broke and was beyond economic repair. He had some savings he paid towards it. He borrowed £9k and after he had repaid £6k at rate of £250 pcm I told him he didn't need to repay the rest. I do the £3k gifting and give all 3 DC a monthly allowance out of surplus income as tax efficient against IT. I also pay all 3 DC money to go into their pensions every month again out of surplus income. If any need to borrow money they can. They always expect to pay it back. I've always tried to help them with deposits, paid towards both DGS's nursery fees so DD could go back to work full time. If I lived closer I'd have looked after them 1 day a week.

Yes, the gifting limit of £3k has not been increased with inflation for years. It needs to be increased to £5k for each DC. The more money being spent as opposed to just sitting in banks is so much better for the economy and keeps people in jobs.

We’re not in the UK so IT isn’t a concern. We give our children money because we have it to give and would rather we all enjoyed it when we’re alive. The children all work very hard and none of them are spoilt which is what people think must be the case when others are given money by family. There aren’t pockets in a shroud.

We have given a lot of money to our children over the years. It would be to outing to specify as I know they are on here. We are by no means rich and have little in savings now but enough pension to live on and take a foreign holiday once a year. I do not begrudge them; they are appreciative and are not profligate in their life styles. There has always been a very good reason behind each one of our gifts.

Hi
My son has just borrowed 8k from us. He is buying a house and needed some money for his legal costs. I know he will pay us back as and when he can, we are not concerned at all. We have also helped our other 4 children with loans when they have needed money. They have always paid us back! If we are able to help, we will continue while we can!

You can only give £3000 in total not per child.

That's what I thought, but my mother has been told by a financial advisor that it's £3000 per child.

That's what I thought, but my mother has been told by a financial advisor that it's £3000 per child.

You can give away £3000 per tax year without it being added to the value of your estate. You can also carry forward any unused annual exemption to the next tax year, but only for one tax year.
https://www.gov.uk/inheritance-tax/gifts

Yes - my wife and I give our 2 daughters £3k each ,each year. This stops the taxman thieving it when we're dead.

But they got lucky with their mum.

I've paid off no end of debt collectors for one son over the years; finally persuaded him to just ask when he gets himself into a hole but thankfully these days it's more likely to be about vet bills than cars he's written off.
My other son has always been level headed, always in work, great job, family, etc., so when he saw the house of his dreams he didn't have to ask; we gave him enough to secure a deposit.
We're fortunate enough to help out but we've come to realise that our kids often don't need our money when we're gone, it's far more useful to them now.
Lending them money and insisting upon repayment is great for ensuring that they don't overstretch themselves financially but equally, when the money might be life enhancing for them (e.g. bricks & mortar or IVF treatment, NOT just a better car or holiday) if you can afford to give them the choice of a gift now or inheritance later, I know which they'll be more grateful for.

We give. I'd rather see them have it when they need it, than wait for us to pop off. My parents and grandparents were the same.

My mum has in the past loaned both me and my sister money, it tended to be larger amounts we would otherwise have got a commercial loan for. No interest but a clear repayment plan. We were both very grateful.

Four dks, now on a state pension and small NHS one. My dks, left home early and were self sufficient. If They ask to borrow money, I know it is serious. We give them what they need. DH was a vehicle technician, he does the servicing etc for their cars. Oldest DD required a battery, and quite a other parts,we say "Happy birthday" or Christmas.Youngest DD moved from property where washing machine, fridge freezer,cooker was included,we bought these. These are big expensive purchases for us, they know they are literally the Birthday or Christmas presents. I started saving accounts for the older dgks before we retired,there was 2 now 4, they get money on their Birthdays for their savings accounts.

I’m the DC in this scenario and have borrowed money from my parents when I was much younger and paid them back too. But just this week I looked at my online banking and saw that they had sent £1000 to my bank account and hadn’t said anything. I actually thought they may have done it by mistake so spoke to my mum and she said ‘we just wanted you to treat yourselves’ ( me and DD) I obviously told her they were mad and thanked them both.
I am having a knee replacement op next week and what they don’t know is that my sick pay will be 50 % of my normal salary so it was great timing.

My husbands Mum will treat us occasionally, she was up this weekend and paid for our food shop and bought us dinner out. My Mum rarely visits but she has helped us out with money on occasion. When they have helped out with big stuff like the roof and burglar alarm, my Mum will gift us the money but we have repay in-laws.

I do both. Gift them smaller amounts of money towards things like holiday spending money. I lend them whatever they need but expect them to pay it back. Lending is usually for bigger unexpected amounts like flat deposit or needing a new washing machine.

PIL have gifted us money over the years which has been incredibly kind. Not huge sums but enough to make a difference.