LONDON: Inheritance tax paid by British families has topped £5bn a year for the first time in history, the final data before new allowances were introduced in April reveals. A record number of middle-class families are being dragged into the tax as a result of soaring house prices in the South and stamp duty discouraging elderly people from downsizing, experts said. Families with recently deceased relatives have narrowly missed out on new, higher limits which will eventually let them inherit homes worth £1m tax-free.
In the year ending in May 2017, £5.1bn was collected by HMRC through Inheritance Tax receipts, a rise of 9 per cent on the previous year when £4.7bn was collected over the same period. Despite house prices rocketing over the past ten years the inheritance tax threshold has remained the same since 2010, meaning more estates each year are hit by the tax.
