Most tax efficient way to sort inheritance

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Ballymag

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I am an only child to two elderly parents. They downsized their property earlier this year leaving them with 60k in cash. They are happy to gift this now to me but I want to manage this in the most tax efficient way and don't urgently need the money. Although I wouldn't now be liable for CAT, as I am due to inherit their house (currently worth 300k approx.) I would certainly be over the threshold when that time comes.
I have a spouse and 2 young children so I have taken 12k from them this year as I understood this is allowable? Is this correct and do I need to transfer the monies into the kids accounts for their allowable portion etc? Do I need to keep bank statements to show to Revenue in year(s) to come? My plan would be to transfer another 12k next year.
Am I correct with all of this - really don't know enough about it.

Thanks.
 
Mother 3k to you
Father 3k to you
Mother 3k to spouse
Father 3k to spouse
Total 12k per year tax free gifts.
5 years to transfer the whole 60k

Assuming the house would eat up your whole CAT level, your parents might want to consider leaving extra cash to your wife / children and use their lifetime allowances as well.
 
As they're earning practically no interest on their money anyway, why don't they hold it in cash, let you know where it is and if the worst comes to the worst you'll have access to it and no one knows. I know about the dangers of cash in a house and all that, but what i've suggested happens an awful lot more than people might think. No, i'm not trying to suggest people break the law or anything, just might get an extension paid for or similar. Ahem!
 
Thanks folks. Didn't realise I could get this from each parent - thought it was 12k because 3k * 4 people (i.e. me, spouse, 2 kids) equated to that. Regarding the will - does this mean that they can leave some to my spouse as ant dee is suggesting which would use some of his lifetime allowance too? At that rate, it would be better perhaps to leave the house to me and any cash to spouse, for example. Is that right?
 
Ballymag said:
I have taken 12k from them this year as I understood this is allowable?
Click to expand...

You should give them back €9k

The allowance is from one person to another person. Simple as.

Your father can give you €3k .
Your mother can give you €3k.
You should make them separate transactions for simplicity and clarity.

If they gave you €12k, in theory you have €3k exempt, and €9k is using up your allowance. In practice, Revenue would probably regard the €6k as exempt, and 6k allowance used.

Brendan
 
Ok - am transferring 6k back to my parents. I was then going to transfer this from them to my spouse - to a credit union account solely in his name. Would this keep things clear and ensure I am using up our allowances for this year? If so, I will do the same in January for 2018 allowances. I know that money can be transferred to their grandchildren too - does the 3k allowance apply to kids or only adult grandchildren? I've read the details on Revenue - it would seem that my spouse would have a lifetime allowance of 16k (group c) so perhaps more could be transferred to him now?
 
the €3K can be given by anyone to anyone. you can gift €3K to your neighbours or even strangers
 
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