STRAIGHT TO THE POINT

I PROPOSE to give my son and daughter £10,000 each next year. Might this attract inheritance tax?

J. M. S.,Dumfries, Scotland.

INherItaNCe tax ( Iht) rules are complex. the short answer is this: as long as you live more than seven years from when you make the gift, your children won’t have to pay inheritance tax on that money when you die.

If you don’t live that long, there’s a tiered tax charge, depending on how long ago the gift was made.

Whatever happens, there won’t be any Iht on the gift if it falls within your estate’s total inheritance tax allowance of £325,000.

For more information, visit tax help for older People at or call the charity on 0845 601 3321 or 01308 488066.

taxvol.org.uk

I AM in receipt of a pension from Jaguar Land Rover and received notification of the annual increase at 3.2 pc. Yet the

amount I’m going to be paid reflects a 2.2 pc increase. My enquiries have been met with a wall of silence.

G. C., Birmingham.

JarDINe Lloyd thompson (JLt), which administers your pension, says its calculation is correct and you should have received a letter on May 22, explaining that different parts of your pension receive different rates. JLt is looking into why your calls and letters went unanswered.

I PAID £91 off my Sainsbury’s credit card at Nationwide, but the cashier mistakenly transferred the money to the water firm Severn Trent. So I missed a payment and

now worry my perfect credit record will be affected. I think this also means I’ve lost the promotional interest rate I was paying. Nationwide has not been helpful.

E. W., Long Eaton, Derbys.

NatIoNWIDe has since made the correct payment and refunded the erroneous one.

sainsbury’s has refunded the £12 late fee, confirmed your rate has not been affected and says it will remove any markers from your credit file. Nationwide has also offered you £75 as a goodwill gesture.

I HAD an email from Apple, saying I’d subscribed to a mobile phone app I did not recognise for $34.99 a year. Should I click on the link to cancel the payment?

R. H., Hampshire.

No. thIs is a scam to steal your details. I advised you to log in to your itunes account to see if any payments were pending. you did this and didn’t find anything.