Legacy Programme

The Foundation has received more support through legacies than from any other source.  Legacies are free of inheritance tax, as the Foundation is a registered charity, and with personal allowances not having kept up with house inflation in recent years, it is projected that one in ten home owners will be liable to pay inheritance tax by 2010 ( PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Maurice Fitzpatrick, Numerica).

Making a bequest to the Foundation is certainly a far more attractive option than paying 40% tax and will ensure that Taunton School benefits rather than the Inland Revenue. It also enables many people who are “asset-rich” rather than “cash-rich” to make a contribution to Taunton School. This will make a real difference to the School’s future and importantly, donors will be recognised and appreciated now for their bequest.

 1% Will make the difference

Would you please consider leaving, say 1% of your Estate to the School after specific responsibilities have been met?  (A residuary legacy).  A former Taunton School teacher once asked a successful Old Tauntonian, “How much do you feel that Taunton School has contributed to your successful career?  50%, 10%..... surely 1% … ?”  

 Examples of some of the more recent legacy pledges are: 

• Scholarships and bursaries
• Sports pavilion
• Music facilities
• Improving the fabric of the School
• Theatre development
• Library books and facilities
• Chapel furnishings
• Paintings
• Sports facilities
  

1% might just fund a scholarship, pitch, room or even a building named after you? If this is an area of interest, please contact the Foundation Director.


How To Make A Bequest

 It is very important for everyone to make a Will to ensure that their best wishes for their Estate can be carried out as they intend.    A solicitor is the best person to advise on this and will be able to help you decide which of the following would be right for you:

A Residuary Legacy
 Specific pecuniary bequests can be eroded by inflation or more worryingly, if the overall value of the Estate falls, it could mean that the proportion of the Estate given was more than the Legator intended.  A way around this is to bequeath a percentage or fraction of the residue of your Estate to the Foundation after your specific bequests have been made and this is the preferred 1% option mentioned above.

A Pecuniary Legacy
 This involves leaving a specific sum to a named organisation.  The disadvantages of this method are as mentioned above.  However, a legacy can be specifically index-linked to preserve its value for the future and your solicitor should be able to provide you with suitable wording for this.

A Reversionary Legacy
 This method enables you to provide for your family first and then to the School.  It involves placing your Estate in trust so that named beneficiaries would be entitled to the income during their lifetime, with possibly a power for the Trustees to advance capital if the beneficiaries were to need further funds for some unforeseen reason.  After the death of the named beneficiaries, you could provide for the whole, or for a percentage, of the capital to pass to the Foundation.

A Substitutional Legacy
 This means that you can leave your Estate to a particular person or persons, but if they pre-decease you, then the bequest could go to the Foundation.

A Specific Legacy
 You can leave specific personal possessions to the Foundation such as property, stocks and shares, works of art, antiques etc.  This can be an attractive option where the asset has appreciated in value over the years and a lifetime sale would attract a high Capital Gains Tax liability. 

Deed of Variation
 If you become a beneficiary of someone else’s Will you may wish to consider transferring the whole, or part, of that inheritance to the Foundation using a Deed of Variation.  The value thus transferred would be exempt of the Inheritance Tax which would otherwise have been payable out of the Estate in respect of the value transferred.

Life Assurance
 A final suggestion is to take out a Life Assurance policy with the Taunton School Foundation as the named beneficiary.  In this way, for a very modest premium, you can ensure substantial benefits for the School.

 It is, of course, also possible to combine this with one or more of the above.

  What You Need To Do Now

• Arrange to see a solicitor to draw up a Codicil/new Will
• If you would like details of an OT solicitor near you, please contact the Foundation Director.
• Please opt for a 1% Residuary Legacy if at all possible, perhaps more if you have no dependent relatives.
• Please complete the Pledge Form (below) and return it to the Foundation Director.
• If you have any questions or require more information, please do not hesitate to contact the Foundation Director. 

(PLEDGE FORM .jpg) Please print off the form, complete and return it to The Foundation Office.



GIVING FROM THE USA

There are substantial tax benefits available to US taxpayers by giving to Charities and Foundations, but such bodies must be recognised by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and based in the USA.

In order to allow our US taxpayers to donate to Taunton School without removing these benefits, we have registered with the British Schools and Universities Foundation, Inc. (BSUF), a US registered charity. Contributions are deductible for Federal income tax purposes. Bequests, legacies, devises, transfers or gifts are deductible for Federal estate and gift tax purposes.

BSUF operates a reliable system under which monies are properly transferred to the Foundation.  Please contact us for further details, or use the following link: www.bsuf.org/.