Inheritance tax (IHT) receipts from April to July 2023 were £2.6bn – an increase of £200m compared with the same period last year.
This puts HMRC on course for a “record year” of receipts from IHT.
Canada Life tax and estate planning specialist Julia Peake said June was also the highest monthly total on record for IHT receipts.
She added that The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has forecast that IHT will raise £7.2bn for the Exchequer this financial year.
“The Conservatives have begun to bang the drum about abolishing IHT as part of their manifesto for the upcoming General Election should they remain in power but the question remains is, what would they replace this with? This has been mooted before by this government and yet no plans are in place,” Peake said.
“This is why having conversations about estate planning and how you want your assets to be protected and passed on in the future needs to happen much earlier in the financial life cycle than it currently does.”
Mazars partner Paul Barham said IHT has been “worth its weight in gold” for the Treasury and agreed that “HMRC is well on its way to another record IHT year”.
Barham also highlighted that “the future of IHT is under the spotlight with rumours that it could be scrapped altogether come 2024”.
Still, he added, “you can’t plan your finances on speculation and people should look at ways that they can reduce their potential IHT liability”.
Interactive Investor senior personal finance analyst Myron Jobson on the IHT tax bill surging higher said it “should be of no surprise”.
“IHT continues to be an effective cash cow for the government,” he said. “And it continues to shift away from being a tax on the wealthy, as originally intended, to one paid by more modest estates thanks to growth in house prices (over the long term) and solid investment returns over the long term.”
Peake agreed that the “housing market buoyancy, despite the recent downturn in the market, and tax thresholds being frozen until 2027-28 are driving the record tax take.”
