The prospect of letting the taxman take large slabs of her estate when she dies does not sit well with Jayne Buchanan.

Ms Buchanan, 60, wants to reduce her inheritance tax and capital gains tax liability and better plan her retirement. She lives in a £400,000 cottage in Berkshire that she co-owns with her son.

She has given her son a flat worth around £550,000 and also co-owns two flats in Chiswick, west London, with her brother, one worth £620,000 and one worth £650,000. The latter is rented out for £1,800 a month.

She said: “I want to minimise tax – to make sure the Government gets less when I finally die.”

Aside from her property assets, Ms Buchanan has around £75,000 invested in an Isa and another £75,000 in the bank. She has £15,000 in shares and a teacher’s pension of £500 a month. She will qualify for the full state pension when she reaches 66.

She also has a private pension plan worth around £90,000, into which she pays £3,000 a year. She works weekends as a freelance events organiser and said her attitude to risk was “cautious to medium”. She is divorced.

Martin Green, a financial planner at Chadney Bulgin, said:

The flat Ms Buchanan gave to her son is eligible for two lots of the £3,000 annual gift allowance against inheritance tax (IHT), as one previous year’s allowance can be used (assuming that no other gifts were made at the time), so the actual gift in 2013 is valued at £544,000 for IHT purposes.