Does anyone know if australia has the dreaded inheritance tax the same as the uk. because lets be honest its a bloody joke, you work all your life and pay tax, then when you peg it they go and take what should be left to your kids or a big chunk of it.

anybody got any insight. :curse:

Depends what you are inheriting...

http://www.ato.gov.au/individuals/co...tent/57405.htm

http://www.ato.gov.au/individuals/co...tent/36924.htm

http://www.ato.gov.au/individuals/co...tent/36596.htm

Aus does not have inheritance tax.

Note that the UK government still has dibs on your estate if you die within 3 complete tax years of leaving the UK (and you were a UK tax resident for a certain amount of time).

No inheritance tax specifically, but you should look at the capital gains tax rules on inheritance and future disposal - Australia makes up for it in this area compared to the UK.

In theory it could be longer than that - however in practice, once your assets are in Australia and your will is made under Australian law, there's no real way for any tax to be collected.

Note that assets located in the UK may always remain within the Inheritance Tax net.

There is no Inheritance tax here - Death Duties were abolished a number of years ago.

My Mum passed away in the Uk last year and the tax was a real nightmare for my brother and I.

The tax is at source so even though I am an Aus Citizen now the estate had a 40% chunk removed

What added insult to injury was the fact that we had to have valuations on everything.I could not take anything out of the country until I had it valued.We had some people valuing that were very much on our side
Some of what was in the valuation my Brother and I had bought our parents as gifts over the years.

My sisters and I are going through this at the moment following mt Dad's death.

The f*@^ing tax office demand the payment of the estimated ( estimated by them - incorrectly ) BEFORE they will release/permit probate, so we've had to find a 5-figure sum to pay to the robbing swines prior to getting any money from the estate ! GRRRR.

And the form is a nightmare to complete.

We are even taxed AFTER death. Lovely.

It's just what you need after losing a parent.

That's because it's levied on the estate not the beneficiaries.

And you should do your maths again - you only get taxed at 40% above the nil rate band. So the overall tax on the estate is usually much less than 40% unless the estate was worth millions.

Quite frankly - the fact you've been able to inherit anything is something you should consider as a bonus in life. Many people get nothing.

And if you find yourself complaining about the % or so of the total value that has to be paid, rather than the windfall that the rest represents, then you should perhaps reassess your priorities and values in life.

Why should you not complain about having tax deducted. One of the bonuses of coming to countries without death duty is that I can leave my earned and taxed savings to my children without the taxman getting another cut.
I would not expect my children to see this as a windfall, more of a right that I want to grant them.

I don't think you're in a position to tell people to reassess the priorities of their life.

If people actually worked out how much of their income was taken by the UK government including IHT and indirect taxes, most people would be shocked. For most people it's going to be well over 50% with quite a lot over 60%. To suggest that the small fraction that the UK government allows the beneficiary to keep is a bonus or a windfall is absurd. In most cases, and certainly mine, this is money that has been earned.

I'd also like to point out that it is misleading to suggest that Aus CGT is even in the same league as IHT. Aus CGT only applies to gains not to the whole value (less tax free allowance). The deceased's main property is not subject to Aus CGT (unless there are periods when it was rented out). Cash (and similar income bearing investments) are not subject to CGT. The only thing it applies to is investments of a capital nature and then it only applies to the GAIN itself and not the whole value of the investment. And with the 50% discount this gain will be taxed at no more than 22.5% (plus medicare).

Hmmmm...suppose my post did sound a little money grabbing,but the subject brought back a lot of anger from last year that was certainly not needed during such a sad time.

To give a little perspective on my feelings...

Yup - the tax is only applied after 285,000 GBP.I sit at this PC corrected.

Our father passed away 12 years ago leaving mum "comfortable".He worked bloody hard and took quite a few risks in business (similar philosophy to me).

My brother and I were given nothing - apart from the wonderful opportunity to grow up in a business family and learn how to run a business.
My first business was funded by my father - via a loan of 17.75% interest.


My brother and I encouraged Mum to spend her money as we had received the greatest gifts already - both of us are in business and successful. Both of us certainly don't need the monies left in the estate.

We certainly did not EXPECT any large sum of money,it was not our RIGHT.

The time around Mum's death was punishing,my brother and I are executors of the will.A very complicated will that took a lot of administering - we did it over and above the letter of the law ,plus a few extra beneficiaries were included that Mum had forgotten about

The monies received had been put into safe investments and property,not one penny squandered.Most will transfer onto our family.

Dad would have been rolling in his grave over the IHT.

Both my brother and I do not need to reassess our lives.

I would be grateful if you do not judge me by one post on the subject.

Same applies in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and even the United States, to a greater or lesser extent. Maybe try Belize or Panama?


No offence is intended to anyone. I just get puzzled why people get angry over a relatively small tax on a huge inheritance when others never inherit anything.

Considering that most UK estates are not worth anything close to the tax threshold, the average IHT tax rate in the UK (anecdotally) is around 6%.

You don't get it, do you? In the UK there is an Inheritance Tax but capital gains up to date of death are not taxable on the deceased. And those who inherit assets are deemed to acquire assets at market value and charged to CGT only on subsequent gains.

In Australia it's different. I'm open to correction but my understanding is that if you inherit an asset in Australia you are deemed to acquire it at zero cost for CGT purposes. So when you later sell the asset you may need to apply the whole proceeds to CGT. Effectively a deferred inheritance tax.

If a future Conservative chancellor in the UK ever decides to abolish IHT, look out for a similar CGT change within the small print.

I can't say for Canada, NZ and US as I've not done the calculations and I'm not likely to. I've done the calculations for Aus and UK and they are dramatically different.

Not sure why I need to try Belize or Pananma! I don't know if it was your intention but it sounds a bit boganish to tell someone to try another country just because you don't agree with them.

There are a couple of reasons. The first is general in that IHT is a wealth tax. Whereas taxes on your earnings provide a drag on your prospective wealth, a wealth tax actually destroys it. The second is UK specific in that the poor and the very rich have mechanisms for not paying the tax. If your anecdotal 6% is right then its lowness will have more to do with the rich using their exemption rather than the number of people who come under the tax free allowance.

Fortunately for me, I get "it" more than you think - you can keep the egg sucking lessons to yourself. I will wait to see if you are open to correction but you've got the Aus CGT rules completely wrong. I'm not going to go into the minute details but effectively if you inherit a pre-86 asset your base value for future CGT calculations is the value on the day the benefactor died (just like the UK - except no IHT), and if you inherit a post-86 asset the base value is effectively the value at which the benefactor acquired it. So as I said earlier you are only paying tax on the GAIN not on the whole value. You even get the benefit of the discount if the benifactor held it for more than 12 months. And as I said before you don't pay anything on the benefactor's main residence or any income only investments.

I no longer care what the UK chancellor does.