𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Frozen inheritance tax thresholds and rising house prices are dragging more and more grieving families into paying the hated death duty.

“Yet in the ultimate sign that the government views wealth and affluence with contempt and envy, the only changes they have made have been to hammer family businesses and farms.
“Whoever makes up the next government should scrap inheritance tax in its entirety.”

The figures, released by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), showed 4.62% of UK deaths resulted in an IHT charge, increasing by 0.23 percentage points from the tax year 2021 to 2022.

IHT tax liabilities in 2022-23 were £6.70 billion, a rise of £0.71bn (12%) compared to the previous year.

Ian Dyall, head of estate planning at leading UK wealth management firm Evelyn Partners, said: “This data really just confirms what we already know: that more families are incurring inheritance tax liabilities, and more assets in each estate are becoming subject to tax – even before the IHT measures announced at the last Budget take effect.

“As asset prices, especially equities and property, continue to rise the frozen nil-rate bands offer less and less protection against IHT and families that take no steps to mitigate their liabilities will either get drawn into the scope of IHT or have the tax levied on a greater proportion of their assets.”

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecasts total IHT liabilities for 2024/25 will rise 11.6% on the previous year to £8.4 billion, while receipts data shows HMRC has so far taken £8.2billion for that period.

The OBR also forecasts that in the current 2025/26 tax year IHT will raise £9.1 billion.