Leave a gift in your will

Leave a gift in your Will

It's important to look after the future of your family and loved ones by making a Will and it's also a good opportunity to leave a gift to a charity such as Young Citizens, while reducing your tax bill, leaving your family with less financial pressure to deal with.

Charitable gifts left in wills are outside your estate before inheritance, enabling you to reduce the tax paid on your estate. You could even wipe it out entirely if you leave everything over £325,000 to charity.

If you leave at least 10% of your estate to charity, after any exemptions, this reduces the rate of any IHT due from 40% to 36%, which could save thousands.

Leaving a legacy

There are three types of legacies, depending whether you want to leave a physical item or a cash gift: pecuniary, specific, and residuary.

Pecuniary is the simplest form of legacy – it's a cash amount, so you state in your will that you wish to leave "£X to Young Citizens". The executor of the estate is in charge of ensuring this sum gets to the charity.

Specific is when you leave a particular item, such as property or shares. So, you could leave "£X worth of individual shares to Young Citizens".

Residuary is when you leave the whole, or share of what’s left to Young Citizens once everything else has been paid such as gifts, taxes, debts and costs.

If you want to find out more about leaving a gift to us in your Will, contact Therri Tait.