ÀÏ˾»úÎçÒ¹¸£Àû

Spouse exemption: examples 1 to 4.

Example 1 — gift more than 7 years before death (1)

In May 2013 a husband, domiciled in England and Wales, gave to his wife (domiciled in California) a gift of £200,000.

This uses up £200,000 of the spouse exemption.

In June 2020 (more than seven years later) H died, leaving the whole of his estate (£1m) to W (who remained non UK domiciled).

There is now only £125,000 spouse exemption remaining (together with his nil rate band). It is not possible to have the first gift treated as a failed PET which has escaped charge.

Example 2 — gift more than 7 years before death (2)

This time, H made the gift of £200,000 to W in 2011, which uses his spouse exemption of £55,000. The excess of £145,000 is a PET and will remain so.

In 2020 H died.

The spouse exemption has increased to £325,000. However only £55,000 has been used up – the £145k PET has fallen out of account and will not retrospectively