The data based on the 11 months from April 2015 to April 2016 shows that the government took nearly £4.3bn in IHT – a 21.6% leap in revenue compared to the £3.8bn reported the year before.
IHT receipts last reached a peak high before the financial crisis in 2007/08, with HMRC posting a bumper haul of £3.82bn – before sinking to a rock-bottom £2.4bn by 2009/10 as property values plumetted during the recession.
HMRC puts this year’s jump in revenue down to an increase in the values of assets left in estates over time as well as the number of deaths between December 2014 and March 2015 being significantly higher than in the same period in previous years.
Controversy
The figure comes after months of criticism following the chancellor George Osborne’s announcement to introduce a new IHT allowance of £1m for married couples when including a home – although HMRC later clarified that couples do not need to own a property to take advantage of the proposed changes due to come into force on 6 April 2017.
The reforms have been slammed by the chairman of the UK’s Treasury Select Committee, Andrew Tyrie, as a “mess of complexity and uncertainty”- warning that the rule changes would not significantly reduce the numbers of estates that pay IHT.
