IHT’s £2.2 billion receipts this year exceed record levels ahead of schedule – Mortgage Strategy

According to the latest HMRC data, estate tax revenue rose 4.8 per cent to £2.2 billion from the same record period a year ago.

The data agency added that taxes on this income continued to rise due to “higher transfers of wealth following recent liability deaths” and “recently rising asset value” and the last time the government freezes the threshold for such levies until 2030.

Inheritance tax revenue reached a record £7.6 billion last year, a 7% increase over the past 12 months, which is also a long-standing official figure.

“The June figures mean that inheritance tax revenues have been leading 4.8% in the fiscal year so far from the same period last year. And, don’t forget that last year was a record.

“Even if the recent home price index raises the relative softness of the real estate market, the trend of more households and more assets attracting estate tax liabilities will continue as zero-rate bands are still frozen.”

The data is as the Ministry of Finance releases draft legislation to allow untaxed pensions to include estate tax in inheritance tax for the first time since April 2027.

Helen Morrissey, retired director of Hargreaves Lansdown, said estate taxation is “a tax that affects only a relatively small number of people, but people generally hate that the freezing tax threshold pulls more people into the network.

“From 2027, further criticism has been made by the government’s move to pay inheritance tax on pensions