How an estate's distribution can be rewritten after death — by deed of variation, distribution agreement or court order — and the tax treatment that follows.
A will or the intestacy rules do not always have the last word: beneficiaries can redirect their entitlements, and the court can intervene. This chapter opens with deeds of variation and the concept of reading back, by which a redirection is treated as made by the deceased for inheritance tax and capital gains tax purposes. It then works through the s.142 requirements for IHT reading back — the two-year time limit, the express statement and the bar on consideration — before examining who must be party to a variation, whether property can pass to a stranger to the original gift, and the tax consequences when a variation succeeds or fails. It closes with distribution agreements and how they differ from variations, and with the eligible applicants who may claim under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975.
