Here’s a valuable relief for clients who sold a business in the last three years
Another client scenario for you to get your teeth into this week.
John has been Cliff’s financial adviser for 27 years. For most of that time, Cliff ran his own business. Cliff is a widower, so was reluctant to retire, but just over a year ago, he finally decided to sell the business. In the event, he received just shy of £4 million.
Cliff wanted to invest some of the proceeds to generate a retirement income, which John helped him do soon after the sale of the business went through.
John also made Cliff aware that the sale of the business had left Cliff with a substantial inheritance tax liability. Without planning, this would reduce the amount his son Andrew and daughter Nicole would receive from Cliff’s estate when he dies.
Cliff agreed that this is something he would need to plan for. But at the time, he was focused on generating an income, and wanted to get that done before taking some time to travel. So he left the estate planning for another day.
A year down the line, and unfortunately, Cliff has developed some health issues. At his next review, John cautions him that traditional forms of estate planning, such as making gifts, can take seven years to become fully free from inheritance tax.
However, Cliff does have another option.
John has some good news for Cliff
Had Cliff passed away when he still owned his company, his shares in the business would have been expected to qualify for Business Property Relief (BPR), a long-standing relief from inheritance tax. This would have meant he could have left those shares to Andrew and Nicole free from inheritance tax.
Typically, new investment into BPR-qualifying shares must be held for two years before it is zero-rated for inheritance tax. However, John has some good news for Cliff.
John explains to Cliff that there’s a three-year window following the sale of a business that qualified for BPR. During that period, if Cliff uses some or all of the proceeds from the sale of his business to purchase another BPR-qualifying business, that new investment should immediately qualify for BPR. The same is true if Cliff invests the proceeds in the shares of a BPR-qualifying business managed by someone else, or in a BPR-qualifying investment portfolio.
This comes as a huge relief to Cliff, who had been kicking himself for not starting his estate planning sooner. Based on Cliff’s objectives and attitude to risk, John recommends investing £1.8 million into a BPR-qualifying portfolio managed by a specialist manager. By making the investment John recommends, Cliff would hold shares in a portfolio of unlisted or AIM-listed companies that would be expected to be able to be left free from inheritance tax to his children when he passes away.