---

Finance (No. 2) Bill

No; please let me make some progress on these points. Transferring assets into trusts is very different from making an outright gift; some people have tried to argue that they amount to the same thing, but they do not. The recipient of an outright gift can do with it as they please, with or without the consent of the person who made the gift—they are the absolute owner. However, if a person places money in a trust, it must be used by the trustees in accordance with that person’s wishes. It is the fact that control can continue long after the settlor’s death that makes the difference. Inheritance tax rules for interest in possession trusts have conferred the same exemptions that would apply if putting assets into trusts were identical to making an outright gift. The result has been that interest in possession trusts can be—and regularly are—used as a highly flexible money box and a long-term shelter from inheritance tax liabilities. That usually requires the settlor to get rid of assets in his lifetime but, where the spouse relief is available, it is possible for the settlor to hold on to his assets until death and completely wipe out any inheritance tax liability, in both the present and the future—all without giving the surviving spouse or civil partner any influence whatsoever over the assets in their name. Of course, some cases are not avoidance driven, and a number of exemptions provide appropriate protection for the people involved. First, spouse relief will continue where an interest in possession trust is set up in a person’s will to give a life interest to a bereaved spouse or civil partner provided that, when such interest ends, the assets are taken outright by someone else. No further flexible power is necessary in the trust, because it has delivered its objective.