A silver lining for the credit crunch?

Money Talk By Ronnie Ludwig Saffery Champness, Chartered Accountants

Ronnie Ludwig

We are all feeling the pinch of the tightened economic conditions with falling values and falling, or non existent, profits.

However, there is a silver lining as, provided any losses are carefully managed, the tax system can work to your advantage and significant savings can be made.

This is particularly true in the areas of inheritance tax and income tax.

Somewhat counter-intuitively, this could also be a good time to put any spare cash into your pension fund.

Minimise your inheritance tax liability

If you are looking to give to future generations, now might be the perfect time to give tax efficiently.

This is because plummeting share values and declining property prices mean that the value of your estate could be at its lowest point for some time, and therefore the tax "cost" of lifetime gifting maybe be minimal, or even nil.