Telegraph Money

The week's most important personal finance news, analysis and expert advice, from pensions and property to investment ideas and savings tips.

Death duties: pay less with these legal loopholes

It’s the most hated tax in this country, but we're paying more of it than ever before.

Inheritance tax revenues are at all time high – 5.4bn at the last count – and forecasts predict they will continue to rise each year to reach 7bn by 2023.

Many believe it is important for families to be able to preserve the wealth that they have built up over a lifetime as much as possible within the law. Our new four-part series looks at how taxpayers have found ways to get around the system, finding legal loopholes to cut the amount of cash they have to hand over to the taxman.

The first part looks at how one reader used a clever trick to divert a seven-figure inheritance into a trust fund for his children and grandchildren, cutting his death tax bill by at least 400,000. He used a deed of variation to amend his father’s will after seeking financial advice. Read more about how he did it here.

A different death duty loophole allowed our Tax Hacks expert, Mike Warburton, to put his two children through private school. (And don't miss his latest column on the time Boris Johnson called him to ask questions about stamp duty.)

Receiving inheritance is a wonderful gift, but knowing what to do with it can be difficult especially when it falls on the younger generation. We have looked at the best ways to invest on behalf of your children.

Have you discovered legal ways to cut your own inheritance tax bill? Let us know by contacting harry.brennan@telegraph.co.uk

Talking of the tax man... don't get on his wrong side by forgetting to file your tax return before the Jan 31 deadline. Find out the big changes for this tax year and how filing one can trigger tax reliefs and refunds.

There's all this and plenty more at Telegraph Money, where you can subscribe for 2 a week.

Top stories

Moral Money

Your money

• Let-to-buy | ‘I want to buy a new home and keep my current one'
• Retire at 60 | How to make your money last a lifetime
• Brexit | Our guide to what it will mean for your pensions
• Easy access | Are you on one of these deals that cut rates 81pc?

Best of the rest

Get in touch

To pose a question to our team of expert reporters, email moneyexpert@telegraph.co.uk. If you'd like a free financial plan, email money@telegraph.co.uk with the subject 'Give me a Money Makeover'. And make sure to join our new investment-focused Facebook group to debate the latest share tips and investing trends.

You have the last word...

Adrian Hayes said of 'Silver, Swiss francs and Bitcoin: investors' new safe havens': "The safest thing in the long run is to stay invested in stock markets. Prices and dividends rise in the long term. Buy when prices fall if you can. Reinvest the dividends. Never be a forced seller in a falling market. Do not panic and sell if prices fall. Gold and bonds are not safe. Their value will be lost through inflation. Gold pays no dividends."