Common IHT invoice climbs 9% to £231,000

The common tax invoice for an IHT-paying property climbed 9% year-on-year to £231,000, based on the most recent HMRC stats.

Frozen allowances imply the proportion of deaths leading to an IHT cost rose to 4.72%, the very best stage since 2006/07.

Exempt transfers between spouses continued to prime the checklist of reliefs by worth, serving to defend £6.8bn from tax on first demise.

The mixed worth of enterprise and agricultural property reduction soared to almost £6bn, based on the information.

Supply: AJ Bell/HMRC Annual abstract of HMRC tax receipts for the UK, 21 July 2026

Charlene Younger, senior pensions and financial savings professional at AJ Bell, mentioned: “These figures present how IHT has grow to be a rising concern for extra households, three years earlier than we see the impression of Labour’s demise tax raid on companies, farmers and unused pensions.

“Though solely round 5% of estates pay the tax, the quantity being collected continues to hit new information as property values and funding wealth have risen whereas key tax thresholds have remained frozen.”

She identified that everybody can move on as much as £325,000 earlier than any IHT is due, though the IHT nil fee band has been frozen since 2009. The residence nil fee band (RNRB) has been out there since 2017 and offers a lift of as much as £175,000 per individual if a property is left to their direct descendant(s).

She mentioned a mixture of the bands means most {couples} can move on as much as £1m on second demise, however had each bands been uprated with inflation moderately than being frozen in 2020, a pair might at the moment move on an property value greater than £1.49m mixed, a determine which might rise to over £1.62m by the point the freeze is because of finish in April 2031.