Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has announced she will overhaul inheritance tax if her party wins the next general election. She told the Conservatives' annual conference that "nobody will ever pay inheritance tax on their family home" and couples will be able to leave an additional £1m tax free. Tax experts say the party's £6bn per year estimate of the cost of the plan is reasonable, but warn the policy would primarily benefit wealthier households and could discourage older people from moving to smaller homes.
BBC Verify has looked into the details of the policy. Under the current system, inheritance tax of 40% is paid when someone's estate - the total value of their money and property exceeds £325,000. Anything under this amount is not taxed.
And, when a person dies, they can currently transfer this tax-free allowance to a surviving spouse or civil partner which increases the combined threshold for a couple to £650k. On top of this individuals can get an additional transferable allowance for a family home of £175k each when it is left to children or other direct descendants. So at present most married couples can potentially leave £1m without paying inheritance tax.
The Conservative plan would increase the £325,000 threshold - the point at which you start paying the tax - to £500,000 and fully exempt a family home from inheritance tax. At the moment an estate with a £2m house could be liable for £400,000 in inheritance tax. That would reduce to zero under the Conservatives.
Official figures show that in 2024-25 around 30,400 deaths in the UK left estates which were liable for inheritance tax. This was around 5% of all UK deaths in that year. But the number of estates paying inheritance tax is set to rise, due to the increasing value of inherited wealth being passed on and the threshold having been frozen.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has estimated that by 2032-33 around 12% of people will have inheritance tax due either on their own death or that of their spouse or civil partner. Citing analysis by the consultancy Oxford Economics, the Conservatives say the number of estates paying the tax will rise to 52,100 in 2029-30. The Conservatives estimate their reforms would reduce the number of affected estates in 2030 to 22,000.
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