death-duties
Definition
- Noun (plural only):
- A tax imposed on the estate of a deceased person before the inheritance is distributed to the beneficiaries. This tax is levied on the total value of the property, money, and possessions left by the deceased.
Usage Examples
- (The tax on the inherited estate was required by law.)
- (Government policies on inheritance tax influence financial planning.)
Advanced Usage
"to be exempt from death-duties": to be free from paying this tax, often due to a spouse exemption or charitable donation.
- Assets left to a surviving spouse are usually exempt from death-duties. (No tax is charged on inheritance between married partners.)
"death-duties threshold": the minimum value of an estate below which no tax is payable.
- The government raised the death-duties threshold to £325,000. (Estates valued under this amount are not taxed.)
Variants and Related Words
Death duty (n, singular): the same as "death-duties," but often used in informal contexts.
- He worried about the death duty on his father's house. (The inheritance tax on the property.)
Inheritance tax (n): a modern synonym for death-duties, commonly used in legal and financial contexts.
- Inheritance tax rates vary by country. (The percentage of tax applied to an estate.)
Synonyms
- Estate tax: a tax on the total value of a deceased person's assets, similar to death-duties.
- Legacy tax: an older term for a tax on property inherited.
Related Idioms
- "Death and taxes": a phrase implying that death and paying taxes are the only certainties in life.
- They say only death and taxes are inevitable; death-duties combine both. (The tax is a certain cost of dying.)