Caroline Aherne Left Her Mother A £71,000 Tax Bill

Well, that’s exactly what happened to Caroline Aherne’s mother after her daughter’s tragic death in 2016.  In case you don’t remember her, amongst her better-known roles was her alto ego, the bespectacled chat show host in The Mrs Merton Show.

Want to know why and what she should have done, then read on.

Caroline was very young when she died, she was single and didn’t have children.  She was just 52 when she lost her battle with cancer.

Caroline never made a Will and we’ll never know why.

Perhaps she, like too many people didn’t even think about it.  Perhaps being single and without children the thought of making a Will never crossed her mind.  Perhaps she thought she was too young, but she never found the couple of hours needed to write a Will.

Without a Will, strict rules must be followed, and your family don’t get a say – that’s the law and there’s no changing it.

But, had she made a Will, she could have saved her mother a lot of unnecessary additional stress.

Her Estate was not huge, it amounted to just over £500,000 which with today’s property prices being what they are, is something many of us will equal or even surpass.  Will you be one of them?

After Caroline’s tax allowance and with IHT charged at 40% on the excess, this meant, while trying to cope with the tragic loss of her daughter, she also had to deal with the stress of sorting out an IHT bill amounting to £71,000

The rule is that a deceased’s inheritance tax bill has to be paid upfront and within six months of the date of death.  Furthermore assets in their Estate cannot be released until the IHT bill has been paid!

So, although Caroline had cash reserves of £76,000 which was enough to cover the tax bill it wasn’t accessible and she had to find the funds elsewhere.

If Caroline had taken the time to write a Will, we would have been able to determine her IHT exposure and given her at least two options to prevent putting such added stress on her mother.

Don’t put yourself in a similar situation.  If you haven’t written your Will because you think it is a time-consuming, complicated and expensive process then don’t, nothing can be further from the truth.  With the correct Estate Planning we can prevent your family suffering in the same way.

It’s never too early to write your Will, but it can be too late.

Contact me now on 07958 221460 and we can chat about your circumstances and I’d be delighted to provide you with some helpful free advice (with no obligation).  If you prefer email me at roger.bourdon@ccfs.london