Tax Blog

UK Inheritance Tax bill hits £5.9 billion

Inheritance tax receipts for April 2022 to January 2023 are £5.9 billion, which is £0.9 billion higher than in the same period a year earlier, according to the latest data from HMRC. In 2019/20 the average inheritance tax bill was…
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Late Payment of Tax Becomes Expensive

Following the Bank of England’s announcement on 2 February 2023 that the base rate will rise to 4%, HMRC’s interest rates are also increasing by 0.5%, to 6.5% for late payment interest. The rates, which apply to the main taxes and…
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Significant Updates for Three of my Kindle Books on Tax

Three of my Kindle books have been updated for recent developments as at January 2023. All have also been re-formatted to a more professional standard.  My formatting skills at the time of original publishing were adequate but far from stellar. …
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Inheritance Tax Investigations & Poor Compliance

  Inheritance Tax is one of the most complicated areas of tax law. As it is open to systemic misunderstanding and poor reporting practices, HMRC specifically and understandably targets inheritance tax as an area for investigation. I anticipate that an…
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The Future of Inheritance Tax: Part II

At a basic level, exposed families should consider a professionally drafted Will as essential.  Not only to ensure that material wealth passes as intended but also to ensure that the residential and transferrable residential nil rate bands are not inadvertently…
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The Future of Inheritance Tax: Part I

Figures from the Office for Budget Responsibility show that the Treasury should anticipate just over 43 billion of inheritance tax over six years. The annual take will rise from £6.3 billion in the 2021/22 tax year to a record £8.3…
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The Autumn Statement & The Capital Taxes

In Brief In the words of HMRC, “The inheritance tax nil-rate bands are already set at current levels until April 2026 and will stay fixed at these levels for a further two years until April 2028. The nil-rate band will…
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Inheritance Tax & 17th November 2022

The prime minister Rishi Sunak froze inheritance tax thresholds until 2025-26 when he was chancellor, and it is now understood that he will continue with his stealth tax raid in order to plug the fiscal black hole.  A further threshold…
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