Tax-free wedding gift planning with William & Kate

Prince William & Kate Middleton’s request that people make donations to their charity rather than give them wedding gifts that they might never use could set a trend.
Recent research shows that we spend some £1.1 billion a year on wedding presents with an average spend of £47. With the average couple inviting some 96 guests, this is a total gift value of £4,512 per wedding, according to research from First Direct.
There are 232,990 weddings in total each year according to the Office for National Statistics so there is a lot of money being wasted on unwanted breadmakers, vases, salad servers and the like.
As in Will and Kate’s case, this money could be given to charity or – as accountants are pointing out – or for those who need the money, could be gifted to a young couple as cash to buy things of their own choice.

IHT free gifts

There is a £1,000 Inheritance Tax exemption for anyone making a gift on marriage to a couple. In addition, anyone can use their £3,000 IHT annual allowance to make an Inheritance Tax free gift – and the recipient doesn’t have to be getting married for the money to qualify as outside your estate for IHT purposes. You can carry forward any unused part of the £3,000 exemption to the following year, so if you didn’t use your annual exemption last year, you can gift up to £6,000. These gifts are immediately outside your estate for IHT purposes.
In addition you can make any number of small gifts of £250 each year to any number of recipients, although you can’t use your small gifts allowance together with any other exemption when giving to the same person.
Parents can each give cash or gifts worth £5,000, while grandparents and great grandparents can each give cash or gifts worth £2,500 as ‘gifts on marriage’. You have to formally express your intention to make a gift within the IHT exemptions before the wedding takes place.The IHT rules only apply to guests who are domiciled in the UK.
With an increasing number of couples living together before marriage, it is possible that both will already own a flat or home. While the couple remain unmarried both properties should be free from CGT as both will be the individual’s Principal Private Residence. On marriage one or the other properties must be nominated as their PPP and is free from CGT on sale. But the second property will be liable to CGT calculated from the date of marriage, when it is sold.
Bear in mind too that many young couples today have lived together before marriage and may even have children. Adult Games Direct is a fantastic site for couples and partners alike to obtain novelty gifts.  Now is the time for grandparents to consider making regular gifts out of income to grandchildren to mitigate any potential IHT liability. Provided the gifts are not out of capital and do not reduce your standard of living you can make any amount of regular gifts and they are immediately outside your estate for IHT purposes. Most people do this via a unit trust or investment trust regular savings scheme, written in a bare trust – which costs nothing if you get the fund manager to do it – for the benefit of the child when it is 18.

REVIEW: The Gadget Show Live Professional

We find out what the toy industry thought of the show's first ever trade day.

The event's first ever trade-only day, the Gadget Show Live Professional, attracted 4,735 trade and press from the UK and Europe, with an additional 104,579 consumers visiting the NEC, Birmingham – a 50 per cent increase on last year’s show.
After receiving positive exhibitor feedback on the trade day, marketing manager for the Gadget Show Live Professional, Helen Marriot revealed it is here to stay. She tells Toy News: “People seem very happy that we’ve added it in and on the whole we are pleased with how it went. We will definitely be continuing with it.”
The next Gadget Show Live has been confirmed for April 10th to 15th 2012, with the Professional day on April 9th.
In 2010, only two hours were set-aside for exhibitors to network and do business before doors opened to the public. “It’s very difficult to have business discussions in a consumer environment, especially where people might want to talk about sensitive subjects like trade prices,” Marriot says.
Marriot explains to ToyNews that the organiser was keen to see more toys on show next year, adding: “They make the event fun by giving children a hands on experience of playing, which is very important for the event. They also fit the TV programme’s profile as a family show.
“It would be great to see more quality toy manufacturers get involved. With all the expensive high end tech on show, there needs to be affordable gadgets consumers can take home and the toys are perfect for this.”