On Macabre Inheritance Musings
Jun. 11th, 2013 03:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
danieldwilliamThis is the last of a triptch on Iain Banks. Very much one for the macabre lawyers out there.
Banks died after taking possesion of his author copies of Quarry. These presumably form part of his estate and pass to his heirs. Being the author copies of a posthumos work by a famous author gives them some extra value to collectors. The provenance would be hard to prove, one book looking much like any other book. Unless he had signed them.
An unsigned book might sell for a little over its face value. A signed copy, one of only a box full that will every be signed, signed by the dying author, perhaps for thousands of pounds, maybe more. I’m thinking of the situation where Apollo astronauts signed huge numbers of autographs as form of life assurance policy for their families ahead of the rocket launches.
There are three scenarios. The author signs the books then leaves them in his estate. He signs the books then gifts them. He gifts the books, then signs them.
So what’s the inheritance tax position if the author gave the books unsigned to someone – a small ordinary gift exempt from inheritance tax and then signed them, a small ordinary action which together represented the gift of a substantial monetary value?
It is not to my credit that this sort of question keeps me awake at night. Nor is it to societies credit that it exists at all.
Banks died after taking possesion of his author copies of Quarry. These presumably form part of his estate and pass to his heirs. Being the author copies of a posthumos work by a famous author gives them some extra value to collectors. The provenance would be hard to prove, one book looking much like any other book. Unless he had signed them.
An unsigned book might sell for a little over its face value. A signed copy, one of only a box full that will every be signed, signed by the dying author, perhaps for thousands of pounds, maybe more. I’m thinking of the situation where Apollo astronauts signed huge numbers of autographs as form of life assurance policy for their families ahead of the rocket launches.
There are three scenarios. The author signs the books then leaves them in his estate. He signs the books then gifts them. He gifts the books, then signs them.
So what’s the inheritance tax position if the author gave the books unsigned to someone – a small ordinary gift exempt from inheritance tax and then signed them, a small ordinary action which together represented the gift of a substantial monetary value?
It is not to my credit that this sort of question keeps me awake at night. Nor is it to societies credit that it exists at all.
