Inheritance Tax

The weekend is always a slow time for finance news, as the whole industry seems to shut down for two days. The only item of interest I’ve found this weekend is the latest concern over inheritance tax. With increasing house prices, more properties are qualifying for the tax that comes in when estates reach £285,000. There was a time when leaving someone almost three hundred grand would definitely class you as wealthy - and this was the point of the tax.

However, over 2 million homes now come within the tax bracket and the situation needs to be reviewed. The lower reach of IHT is set to increase to £325,000 by 2009 but this probably still won’t balance out house price increases.

I believe the government could step in and score a few brownie points here, with the budget looming. With tax cuts unlikely on March 21, Gordon Brown could sign off on a high note by commiting to increasing the IHT level.

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