Inheritance tax: Ten ‘legitimate and sensible ways’ to stop Treasury taking all your cash | Personal Finance | Finance

1 – Make a will: Otherwise, your estate will be handled by HMRC and the Government will likely get a greater proportion of your wealth.

2 – Utilise gift allowances: You can give away up to £3,000 a year without paying tax, or £6,000 if you didn’t use it last year. Alternately, you can give £250 each year to as many people as you want, or up to £5,000 as a child’s wedding present (£2,500 to a grandchild or spouse).

3 – Make your gifts larger: If you’re likely to live for seven years after making a gift, it can be of any size without attracting any inheritance tax.

4 – Give a tenth to charity: Leaving at least 10 percent of your estate to charity means you may be able to reduce the inheritance tax rate from 40 percent to 36 for the rest of your estate.