chargeable transfer

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in the United Kingdom, gifts that are liable to inheritance tax. Under U.K. legislation, individuals may gift assets to a certain value during their lifetime without incurring any liability to inheritance tax. These are regular transfers out of income that do not affect the donor’s standard of living. Additionally, individuals may transfer up to £3,000 a year out of capital. If this exemption is not used in one year, or is only partially used, then the unused allowance may be carried forward to the next year providing the full exemption is then used. Each person may also make small annual gifts of up to £250 per donee. Additionally a parent may give up to £5,000 on the occasion of an offspring’s marriage, while a grandparent or more remote ancestor may give up to £2,500, and any other person up to £1,000. Other outright gifts during a lifetime to an individual, and certain types of trust, are known as potentially exempt transfers: there is no inheritance tax to be paid on these at the time of the gift, but a liability arises if the donor dies within seven years, with that liability decreasing the longer the donor survives. If the donor dies within seven years of the gift, then potentially exempt transfers become chargeable transfers for inheritance tax purposes.