Shelley Fitzpatrick
Legal
Basic Gifting Rules in the UK
Every adult in the UK has an individual gifting allowance of £3,000 per tax year.
This means that you can gift directly from your estate to anybody of your choice without any tax charges on the gift. If you have not made any gifts in the previous tax year, you are able to also claim the previous year’s allowance of £3,000.
You can give as many gifts of up to £250 per person as you want each tax year, as long as you have not used another allowance on the same person. This is known as the small gift allowance.
If you wish to gift for a wedding or civil partnership, you can give up to (per tax year):
- £5,000 to a child
- £2,500 to a grandchild or great-grandchild
- £1,000 to any other person
If you’re giving gifts to the same person, you can combine a wedding gift allowance with any other allowance, except for the small gift allowance.
It is also possible to make gifts out of regular income as this may potentially fall outside of an individual’s estate.
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Emma Boys-Smith, Solicitor in our Wills & Probate team, said:
“Using your gifting allowance can be an effective way to reduce your overall estate value without the risk of triggering a potential inheritance tax.
If you are looking to gift money out of your estate or make any lifetime chargeable gifts please get in contact and speak to a member of our Wills, Trusts and Probate team who can advise on the implications and assist you with your estate planning.”