STRAIGHT TO THE POINT

CAN you clarify the rules around how much money I can give as tax-free gifts each year?

E. O., Notts.

YOU can give away as much as you like if your estate is likely to be under £325,000 as an individual, or £650,000 as a married couple or civil partner.

Otherwise, each year you can give away a total of £ 3,000 tax-free — and any number of £250 gifts. Anything over that amount will fall within your estate if you die in the subsequent seven years.

If you didn’t use up this allowance in the last tax year, you can backdate one year and give up to £6,000 tax-free. You can also give one-off monetary gifts to children or grandchildren of £5,000 and £2,500 respectively, should they be getting married.

I’VE received a penalty charge notice from a private parking company asking me to pay £100 and an £18 administration fee as I didn’t respond to a ticket that they put on my car. Is it able to force me to pay?

P. L., via email.

THIS is a civil matter, not a criminal one, so the parking operator could take you to the small claims court to recover the fine. If this happens, you may be able to defend your position if you didn’t break the rules, if parking signs were not clear or if the fee is unreasonably high.

If you do go to court and lose, you could be liable to pay court costs as well as the initial fine.

WE’VE just sold our house, but had to take a six-month rental as we haven’t bought a property yet. We’ll have £300,000 from the sale of our house. Where should we save this money so we can withdraw it immediately when we buy a new property?

T. L., Devon.

IT’S important to split the money over several accounts because at the moment the Financial Services Compensation scheme guarantees savings only up to £85,000 per person, per banking licence.

From July 2, this will change — you’ll get protection of up to £1 million in one account for up to six months.

If you want to withdraw the money quickly, easy- access savings accounts are best.

Some of the most competitive options include Virgin Money’s Easy Access account, which pays 1.13 pc after 20 pc tax (1.41 pc).

For over-50s, Saga’s Telephone Saver Issue 16 account’s interest rate is 1.08 pc (1.35 pc).

Skipton Building Society, Charter Savings Bank and Kent Reliance have easy-access accounts with a 1 pc (1.25 pc) rate.