Why is IHT becoming a tax liability that people are increasingly and seriously starting to worry about?
This is primarily down to the recent house price boom. Given the boom of property house prices of the past few years hundreds of thousands more homeowners have already fallen into the Inheritance Tax trap – which means that IHT will be due when they die. Here are some interesting facts that demonstrate how seriously an issue IHT is becoming: Firstly, in the first six months of 2004 alone an additional 500,00 homes went above the current IHT threshold. This means that the Inland Revenue will demand tax when the property owners die. Secondly, new figures show that around 2.4 million people will be liable for IHT when they die. Only a few years ago, the number of people who were liable for this tax was just a fraction of this. Thirdly, high property prices are normally associated with the South. However recent research by the Halifax bank has shown that 60% of properties that have risen above the IHT threshold are outside London and the South East. This demonstrates that IHT is no longer
