Inheritance tax (IHT) is something a solicitor advising on wills, estates and lifetime gifting deals with constantly. It shapes how clients plan their affairs and determines what an estate actually owes on death. Getting it right means knowing when a charge arises, what shelters value from tax, and how to follow a calculation through step by step to a defensible figure.
This lesson builds that skill from the start, one piece at a time:
- Nature, Scope, Rates and Bands — what IHT is, when it arises, the rates that apply and the nil rate band.
- Transfers of Value — identifying a transfer of value and measuring the loss to the estate.
- Exemptions — the reliefs that take transfers out of charge, lifetime and on death.
- Types of Lifetime Transfer — distinguishing PETs from chargeable lifetime transfers and how each is treated.
- Valuation and Grossing Up — valuing assets and grossing up where the transferor pays the tax.
- Cumulation and Death Within Seven Years — how earlier transfers eat into the available nil rate band.
- Taper Relief — reducing the tax on gifts made three to seven years before death.
- Residence Nil Rate Band — the extra band for a home passing to descendants.
- Transferable Nil Rate Bands — carrying unused bands between spouses and civil partners.