The United Kingdom went into national mourning last week as the news broke that His Royal Highness Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, sadly passed away on Friday at the age of 99. He was the longest-serving royal consort in British history, having been married to Her Majesty The Queen for more than seven decades. The question that is now starting to surface within the industry is “what will happen to Prince Philip’s multimillion pound estate?”.

Four in 10 people fear the UK Government will increase the current 40 per cent Inheritance Tax (IHT) rate to help cover the cost of the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings, from research by Tower Street Finance among 2,000 UK adults, revealed more than half (54 per cent) think the Government is set to hike the rate of IHT to 50 per cent, three in ten fear a rise to 60 per cent and one in seven predict it could rise to 70 per cent.

A recent report by the Taxpayers’ Alliance projects that the government will receive £5.35 billion in Inheritance Tax from grieving relatives in the 2019 to 2020 tax year. This is the highest amount of Inheritance Tax ever collected in by the government and it’s predicted to keep growing.

At a Conservative conference fringe event organised by the Institute of Economic Affairs and the Taxpayers’ Alliance, Chancellor Sajid Javid hinted that he could cut Inheritance Tax. After being asked whether he would scrap the tax, Sajid Javid shared how he understood arguments against the tax and suggested that he’s considering changes.

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) opened a staggering 5,537 Inheritance Tax investigations in the 2018-2019 tax year, which is a 3.4% increase in comparison to the previous 2017-2018 tax year. To put this number into perspective, this equates to nearly a quarter (23%) of the 22,000 estates where Inheritance Tax is due. With such an incredibly high proportion of estates affected, it raises concerns about whether those responsible for paying Inheritance Tax are aware of the risks if they make mistakes.

The Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) has published its second report on Inheritance Tax. The report comes after the Chancellor requested a review of administrative and technical aspects of the tax back in January 2018. The first report was released in November 2018 and covered the administration of Inheritance Tax. This second report now explores the key complexities and technical issues that arise from the way the tax works.

This year has been a big year for government-related announcements, including proposed probate fee changes, civil partnerships set to be extended to mixed-sex couples, and recommendations to simplify Inheritance Tax. 2018’s research papers have also revealed some interesting insights about the Will writing and financial service industries.

We recently reported that an Inheritance Tax review was to be published by the end of this year, and the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) has now released their first Inheritance Tax review report. This first stage of the report provides an overview of the tax and “sets out recommendations on administrative issues”.

A recent article from the Telegraph revealed how a personal representative was left with a staggering Inheritance Tax (IHT) bill of £341,278 when he was administering a £1.2 million estate. Mr Harris misguidedly distributed the assets to the beneficiaries before all of the Inheritance Tax had been paid. He did this with the understanding that one beneficiary (who received the majority of the estate) would pay any Inheritance Tax that was still owed. However, this did not happen as the beneficiary left the country without paying, leaving Mr Harris to foot the bill.