For many retired people, Inheritance Tax planning is not a major objective. Very surprising when you consider that the Treasury, in 2008, took over£4 billion pounds in a tax which is often known as a ‘ voluntary tax’.

Why do people put off Inheritance Tax (IHT) planning? According to unbiased.co.uk 74% of people were not told about it !

Usually the single largest asset is the family home- and there are few simple, uncomplicated cheap ways of ensuring it can be eliminated from the estate. Equity release can form one effective method of Inheritance Tax planning, but it is still tainted, in some eyes, with bad experiences of the past, before the regulators stamped out schemes which were subsequently proven to have big potential drawbacks.

Many people start their Inheritance Tax planning process by taking out life assurance to cover any liability, but of course, this does depend on the costs involved, which are directly related to the assurability of the elderly client. Age and ill health would therefore make it unaffordable.

The political impact on Inheritance Tax planning has also meant that action has been put on the back burner- but since the credit crunch will be felt for many years, any raising of the bar on IHT allowances seem now to be very optimistic. IHT is the easiest tax to collect because estates are not distributed until after probate is granted, at which time, a liability is paid over to HMG.

One of the most common myths of investments is the statement that Individual Savings Accounts (ISA’s) are tax efficient. They are very Income Tax and Capital Gains Tax efficient, but are totally ineffective as far as Inheritance Tax planning is concerned. With clients having accumulated significant funds with ISA’s and their predecessor PEP’s. Reviewing the alternatives is a quite simple process of eliminating the 40% tax charge which would be take from it.

The starting point is the review ( or making!) of the family will. This will ensure that for a couple, both nil rate band allowances are utilized to maximum advantage, and that estates go to the people intended. The most recent celebrity example of this is Peter Sellers. His estate has now gone almost exclusively to the two children of one of his divorced wives- no direct blood relatives. His own children received very small bequests because his will was not set up to reflect his latter day circumstances.

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Often people and companies need to deal with clients that live and operate from outside your country’s borders and so when you earn income from dealing with these overseas clients you will be required to pay taxes on the income earned from the foreign clients. In fact, the Internal Revenue Service has its very own international tax laws that govern how taxes on money earned from abroad are to be calculated. This in turn means that you will need to hire an international tax lawyer to do the calculations for you based on their exhaustive knowledge of applicable international tax laws.

Get Many Benefits

With the help of an international tax lawyer you can avail of many benefits including know how to get exemptions (legally) and also file your returns in complete compliance of international tax laws. If you earn money from an external source you will benefit by hiring an international tax lawyer that will then advise you how to file your tax returns. Even if you have earned money from dealing with multinational companies or happen to be a US citizen living overseas you will require expert help in the form of an international tax lawyer to help you file your returns.

Another area where an international tax lawyer comes in handy is when it involves international companies doing business abroad and who are also seeking to enter into joint ventures, perform mergers or who otherwise wish to expand their businesses and enter into contracts or leases with foreign parties.

An international tax lawyer will negotiate on your behalf and will help you with tax agreements and also assists in structuring your company in a way that you attract least taxes. Even in the case of a US citizen that is non-resident an international tax lawyer will be able to help in getting more exemptions and to ensure that you do not pay double by way of income or even property taxes in both your country of residence as well as in the US.

The continuing proliferation of multinational companies having overseas business interests has certainly increased the demand for well qualified international tax lawyers. However, if you are a business that is conducting business locally it still pays to hire a corporate tax lawyer well before the IRS has started to audit your accounts. There are in fact several ways in which such a lawyer will help you with your business and so, it would be foolish to wait till things go wrong before hiring this particular kind of lawyer.

With many more US citizens working overseas and with more foreigners investing in the US, the international tax lawyer is much in demand and fortunately there are several good such lawyers willing to solve your tax problems for you.