Cancer Research calls for introduction of “lifetime legacies”

Sarah Woolnough, director of policy at CRUK has welcomed the Treasury’s proposals for a 10% reduction in inheritance tax for people who leave at least 10% of their estates to charity.
This initiative was announced in the March Budget, and is due to be introduced in April 2012. The proposed relief would reduce inheritance tax from 40% to 36% per cent for those leaving a tenth or more of their estates to charity.
The Charity says that wider promotion of legacy giving will generate more money for the sector than the proposal to lower inheritance tax, and in June this year, the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners said that if a tax relief on legacies was adopted, most estate advisers would be likely to suggest that their clients think about leaving legacies.
CRUK have also commented that "only the wealthiest 3 per cent of estates are eligible for inheritance tax, so we also ask the government to be innovative in promoting legacy giving to charities more generally and to introduce lifetime legacies, which could be extremely beneficial for the sector."