IHT: Not just a tax on the wealthy

Over the past 10 years, the number of estates liable to pay inheritance tax at 40% has increased from 19,500 to almost 50,000. This has arisen because individual’s principal asset, their family home, has increased at a greater rate than the threshold at which the taxation liability kicks in. In 2000, the average family home in the UK was valued at £81,000 and the inheritance tax threshold was £231,000. Today, those numbers are £167,000 and £325,000, an increase of 106% and 45% respectively. Crossing the threshold A survey we conducted in February this year highlighted IHT was a prim...