The rate charged on anything in your estate above the available allowances.
The nil rate band, frozen until April 2030 while house prices have not been.
From 6 April, most unused pension funds count towards your estate.
The residence nil rate band, an extra allowance where a home passes to children or grandchildren.
Whether this applies to you at all
Plenty of people worry about inheritance tax when they do not need to, and plenty who should be thinking about it are not. The first useful thing we do is establish which group you are in, which takes one conversation and some arithmetic.
The nil rate band, the residence nil rate band where it applies, and the transfer of unused allowances between spouses and civil partners all matter. So does the taper that reduces the residence allowance on larger estates. Adding a pension to the calculation from 2027 pushes some estates over the line for the first time.
What we help with
- Working out the likely bill on your current position, and what it becomes after April 2027.
- Gifting. The annual exemption, the seven-year rule and taper, gifts out of normal expenditure, and the records HMRC expects you to keep.
- Pensions and inheritance tax, which is the biggest change in this area for a generation and the one most of our clients ask about.
- Trusts, where they help and where the cost and complexity outweigh the benefit.
- Life cover written to meet a liability, which does not reduce the tax but can stop your family having to sell something to pay it.
- Business and agricultural property, where relief may apply and where recent changes have narrowed it.
Some Agricultural investments Business Relief (BR) invest in assets that are high risk and can be difficult to sell. The value of the investment and the income from it can fall as well as rise and investors may not get back what they originally invested, even taking into account the tax benefits.
The part people find hardest
Most inheritance tax planning involves giving something away, or committing to something, years before you know whether you will need it. That is a genuine tension and we will not pretend otherwise. Running out of money in your eighties to save your children tax in your nineties is not a good outcome.
So we model what you can afford to part with before discussing what you might want to. The order matters.
The April 2027 change
- Most unused pension funds will count towards your estate
- Applies to deaths on or after 6 April 2027
- Money left to a spouse or civil partner stays exempt
- Death in service benefits are excluded
- Now law under the Finance Act 2026
There is still time
April 2027 is close, but there is still time to look at your position and make changes before the rules apply.
If you have been preserving a pension specifically to pass it on, that is worth revisiting before the rules change.
Start with a conversation
An hour with one of our advisers, at our cost, with no obligation afterwards.
Book a consultation