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Outright gifts

In their Wills, many married couples and civil partners (collectively referred to here as ‘spouses’) wish to leave the bulk of their estates to each other. The main reason for this is to ensure that after the first death, the survivor can continue to enjoy the same sort of lifestyle they enjoyed together. The survivor usually wants to remain in the couple’s home, at least initially.

The other main reason for one spouse to leave his assets to the other is that there is generally no inheritance tax to pay on his death because of the spouse exemption. Provided that the surviving spouse is UK domiciled or both spouses share the same domicile (whether UK or not), there is no inheritance tax to pay on gifts between spouses, whether during lifetime or on death. Note, however, that the spouse exemption is currently capped at the same level as the prevailing nil rate band (currently £325,000) on gifts by a UK domiciled spouse to a non-domiciled