The season for giving – to the Chancellor?

The making of lifetime gifts usually has a part to play when considering an IHT mitigation strategy. The ideal is of course to make an outright gift, after which the donor survives for at least seven years. The potentially exempt transfer (PET) becomes a fully exempt transfer, and property which might have been charged to tax at a marginal rate of 40% passes to the next generation free of IHT, if not capital gains tax (CGT).