Overview
- HMRC receipts reached a record £8.5bn in the 2025/26 tax year, which GB News reports is £200m higher than the year before.
- The nil-rate band has stayed at £325,000 since 2009 and the residence allowance at £175,000, which experts say now pulls many typical homeowners into a 40% charge on value above those limits.
- Unused pension pots will come into scope for inheritance tax from April 2027, and AJ Bell estimates 10,500 more estates will pay while 38,500 existing payers face average bill rises of about £34,000.
- A Saltus survey of 2,000 wealthier adults found half want the threshold raised and nearly a third want the tax scrapped, with the average preferred threshold near £1 million.
- Financial planners urge early action through lifetime gifts, the residence allowance, combining spousal allowances up to about £1 million, and reviewing pension death nominations to avoid nasty surprises.