Preparing the right will

Review your will regularly and particularly in the light of this year’s Budget changes. A will can quickly become out of date, or even invalid if you get married or divorced. A tax-efficient strategy is to pass the amount of the inheritance tax nil rate bands, currently £285,000, directly to the next generation, after making sure that your surviving spouse/partner has enough to live on after you have died.

As a widow or widower, you may file a joint tax return with your deceased spouse for the tax year in which he or she died, provided that you do not remarry within that tax year. If there is a remarriage within that time, it may be possible to file your tax return jointly with your new spouse if all other requirements are met. Generally, a surviving spouse with dependent children is entitled to file a tax return using the married filing jointly tax tables for the two tax years following the tax year in which the spouse died. If you are a surviving spouse filing a joint tax return and no personal representative has been appointed, you should sign the tax return and write in the signature area, "filing as surviving spouse." The final tax return should have the word "Deceased," the decedents name, and the date of death written across the top of the tax return.