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Calls for a complete overhaul of 'unfit' inheritance tax system

Resolution Foundation proposes ‘lifetime receipts tax’ that would allow an untaxed lump sum reports The Guardian.

Inheritance tax should be scrapped, and replaced with a fairer system that would be harder to dodge, thinktank the Resolution Foundation has said. In its latest report into how to tackle unfairness between the generations, the thinktank, chaired by former Conservative minister David Willetts, says inheritance tax is by far the most unpopular tax. Despite being levied only on the largest 4% of estates, and raising just 77p of every £100 of taxation, it is widely regarded by the public as unfair.

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Adam Corlett, a senior economic analyst at the Resolution Foundation and the report’s author, said: “Inheritances are already worth over £100bn a year, and their doubling over the next 20 years means they are going to play an even larger role in shaping British society. “But the current system of inheritance tax is not fit to deal with this societal shift. It currently manages the uniquely bad twin feat of being both wildly unpopular and raising very little revenue.” Instead, Resolution proposes a “lifetime receipts tax”, that would allow beneficiaries to inherit a lump sum before they paid any tax on it – and potentially raise extra revenue for the Treasury.

Find out more here: www.probatebureau.com/blog/53/wills-and-probate-news:-may-2018/