Our NEW KING paying 0% inheritance tax on £100 million estate

[bluejay5]

Am I right in thinking this is unreasonable? While the rest of us commoners are taxed to within an inch of our lives, struggling to heat our homes. A few select individuals who are innately better than any of us towns folk get to keep their wealth and see their generations become richer and richer.
Don't get me wrong I understand the need to pay taxes, to keep us in a usable society and country. They tax our income, any profit we make from any business we take the risk of setting up, our council taxes us, if we receive a dividend from any smart investment we make, if we decide to buy a new house with money that was already taxed, they tax us again ..

And finally to top it all off, after being taxed all our working lives we decided to try and build some generational wealth and help out our offspring, and even in death they tax us... on property and money that was already taxed!!!

Yet a few individuals through no skills, or talent of their own, just by virtue of their birth are deemed to be literally innately better to a point where they are exempt from the rules we live under.

Please make it make sense???

Apparently, the monarchy is exempt from income tax in order to protect the wealth of the royal family from being eroded!
While the rest of us fight for survival like crabs in a barrel.

Plus anyone heard of the ''panama papers the queen''
google it ...

this Society has class baked into it. We aren't meant to move up or aspire for greater things. It's a rigged system, you can't tell me it's not.

Sorry, rant over.

YABU. He effectively pays 70% tax. All the land etc belongs to the crown and the vast majority of the crown estates income goes to the public purse. How do people still not understand this?

Because you have it arse over tit. The Windsors have no personal claim to the crown estates, they belong to a legal entity called The Crown and are effectively public money. Same with the Duchies. However this does explain why no inheritance tax should be paid on them

The extensive private assets are another thing however. No justification at all for being exempt from IT on these.

Take that as a no, you didn't do research to see he isn't inheriting vast estates without paying?

We're always reminded that Balmoral and Sandringham are privately owned but they were bought with public money. Craftily used for "official" business they qualify for taxpayer support. They expect us to pay for everything. They usually get what they want.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/paradise-papers-tax-haven-secrets-the-queen-appleby-law-firm-offshore-finance-a8039041.html

moral or immoral?
or does it not matter as it was only £10 million. Maybe I can store some of my money offshore to avoid tax?

It is complicated but they bring in far far more than they cost.

Not this nonsense again. Show your workings, with the full cost of the monarchy, including security and all the other hidden costs. Compare that to the marginal revenue brought in by the royal family, paying particular attention to the number of tourists visiting the former royal palaces of the republic of France.

The Queen did [pay tax] and now King will pay income tax on personal income, as well as capital gains and VAT.

You do know that they had to be dragged kicking and screaming into paying income tax, don’t you? That only happened relatively recently. And, they pay at a specially negotiated rate which you can bet will be lower than the rest of us. Do you think that they deserve praise for paying VAT and CGT?

It’s surprising that so may posters are rushing to make excuses for these rich, privileged people who don’t give a stuff about them.

Correct, he will not pay inheritance tax on the Queen’s personal wealth from investments etc which is in the hundreds of millions as you say. That’s my understanding anyway.

The extensive private assets are another thing however. No justification at all for being exempt from IT on thes

I wonder if people are upset about that.
They may not agree with IHT but it exists.

For all the individuals begging the state to drain their pockets while protecting the pockets of those in our society who's every fiber of being is without a doubt better than anything, we can hope to even dream of. I think the poll results have spoken.
It is unreasonable for members of our great society to be treated differently because it is perceived that they are somehow better than any of the rest of us just by the virtue of their birth.

@Cognacsoft

"If I build up my assets and invest wisely why should my family pay inheritance tax on an estate that has been made with previously taxed income?"

Anyone (and high net worth individuals will have this in place all ready) can reduce the IHT due, one of the easiest ways is by putting things into trust do they don't form part of your estate.

Honestly, anyone who has savings/property/investments etc that are close to /exceed the IHT limit should see a specialist lawyer/tax advisor for advice on reducing the IHT due after death.

These types of institutions are treated differently by the tax system. It's obviously not a concern for most people, if it were then it would have been changed. It's part of a price that most people seem willing to pay (even if they don't fully understand the details) to pay for a monarchy. You can see how popular the monarchy is recent days, it seems to have overwhelming support.

Lots of other businesses and areas (farming) have very different tax treatment not many people are familiar with.

I should add, on a personal level it is very frustrating when I look at the challenges of my DH small business, and the same for father. But I'm not sure they'd change it for monarchy.

I suspect that if the new King volunteered to pay the tax his popularity would soar. And even if it didn't, it would be the right thing to do.

You can see how popular the monarchy is recent days, it seems to have overwhelming support

Funny. I remember a million people marching for a second referendum - yet we all know that Brexit had more support.

Which just means you are only seeing the people who support the Monarchy or those who are interested.

You aren't seeing the other people. #survivorbias

@DdraigGoch is correct. It is up to £1m for a married couple if you take into account the property exemption.

This exactly!

These types of institutions are treated differently by the tax system

Well no. We're talking about their private wealth here, not the public funding.

They're keen to stress that this wealth is private and should be treated as such when it suits them, so on what grounds should IHT be waived?

If you have a non-state pension then indirectly I imagine there are offshore elements within it. It is all perfectly legal and a very sensible investment strategy. The Panama Papers were just the media stirring up trouble - nothing much came of it because most people weren't doing anything wrong. There are always a few tax evaders at every level of wealth.

The Op is rightfully outraged and is entirely to speak about it. Why bring up other issues, she's talking about this one. By that reasoning if there was a thread about the government's failure to invest in nuclear power, we could say "but what about the government allowing the royals to dodge taxes".....are we supposed to be outraged about everything in one go? Let's talk about the subject in hand please, no mind trying to overshadow/minimise it with things that you get het up about.

You are not unreasonable but Charles isn't a sole exception - loads of wealthy families have very similar structures in place to avoid inheritance tax and if those structures are abolished for all the other multimillionaires and billionaires then the same legislation should also apply for the crown, which is exactly the reason why the option won't be abolished.

Any family, noble or otherwise, can set up a holiding body which is the "actual" owner of all the assets, and which makes grants to family members according to specific criteria. In the case ofvthe royal family the assets are owned by "the crown" which isn't quite the same entity as the mortal human being currently wearing the crown. In the case of a non-royal family it would be a family trust. These entities are immortal so never pay inheritance tax. They cost a lot to run so it's not worth the effort if you aren't stupidly wealthy.

If a means can be found to close this loophole and make all wealthy estates stop hiding their assets from inheritance tax then the Crown shouldn't be an exception, but neither should it be singled out as the only family trust excluded from the loophole when it's something that happens all the time for thousands of families in the top 1%

It's really frustrating that individuals keep posting about this topic having conducted absolutely zero research. It's also concerning how little the OP and general public understand about tax and 'tax avoidance'

Firstly OP, you have to understand that the Royal family are somewhat at a disadvantage to the rest of society as they cannot work or trade. As they can't trade, there are only minimal ways they can increase their family income.

I understand that 'disadvantaged' might be a poor choice of word to use, but you have to understand that the Royal family require some element of wealth in order to be maintained for the next potentially hundreds of years. If the RF paid IHT each time the monarch died, their wealth would evaporate quite quickly.

In addition, as others have said on this thread, HRH and now H(is)RH pay IT and CG voluntarily and have done for decades. Charles has also given up his personal wealth in order to tax the role.

Finally, you clearly have a very basic (or less) understanding of tax planning and tax avoidance. If you pay into an ISA, you are avoiding tax. If you pay into a pension, you are engaged in tax avoidance. And that's the the start. Just because you don't read in the paper how you and your family are avoiding tax, it doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

I am sure I saw this same discussion couple days ago. This and the republic talk getting boring now

Those are the people who obviously haven't read the book by Norman Baker.....there's also millions who are indifferent.

What a ridiculous response @Plantstrees . Other people do it so it's ok...no it's not ok, it's irrelevant what other wealthy people do. We are talking about the royal family, human beings that are intrinsically better than any of us. Had they been born in any other country or class, they would have inevitably all risen to the same stature and level because they are 'ROYAL'

Also, some people are upset. That's fine.
But not everyone is. Some people just want to get on with their every day lives. Many or which are affected by inequality. It feels as though there is never a 'good time to discuss these things.
It also seems that during such times, when the general public is distracted (directed into distraction, the cynical might say), subtle changes to laws around human rights and environmental issues are slipped through.