Inheritance Tax

Inheritance tax is that tax due when someone passes away. When the deceased leaves their friends or loved one's something, if the value of those assets is more than the threshold, then they must pay tax inheritance on that. The threshold is the amount of money that someone's estate must be worth in order for them to have to pay that tax.

The estate includes the deceased's house, car, personal items, etc. If the value of this is above the threshold, the person that inherited this estate must pay the tax at the rate for that year. These funds must be paid nine months after the death of the person the estate belonged to.

If you have been left with an estate from the deceased, you may be liable to pay inheritance tax. To figure out if you do, you will need to add up the value of the estate. When trying to work out the total, include the deceased's land, house, cars, personal items, and any other asset that you received from them. Then, you will want to deduct any money that the person owed. This will include any bills and funeral expenses. Then, if this total is below the threshold, you will exempt from paying the inheritance, but if it is above, you aren't so lucky. You will need to subtract the amount of the estate from the threshold for that year, and take that amount and multiply it by the rate for inheritance tax of that year. The number that you end up with here will be the amount that you owe.

You now have nine months to pay this fee. Many people are opposed to paying inheritance tax because they believe that we are taxed too much already and there is no reason they we should have to pay tax on an estate that was given to us. Others are in favor of an inheritance tax, but just don't agree with the current tax rate which is in the 45-55% range. They believe that the ideal tax rate should be around 10%-15%. Unfortunately, we do not have the power to control the tax rate, so we must pay what is required of us.

Kathy said:

This is outragious and this type of taxe is knows and a vulture tax. Americans pay taxes upon taxes. These items have been taxed by the state and federal government and since when did the government become part of my family? Inheritance is for family members and is a time of tremendous grief. It's the one time family members can finally help their families when they die but now the government wants to throw their hands in for over 1/2 of which should be considered a usery fee. The Boston Tea party days would never have allowed the governement to charge such taxes. Why aren't the American's fighting this?

Kathy said:

sorry for the spelling errors.