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\t\tHMRC enjoyed a record inheritance tax haul in 2025\t<\/p>\n\t\t\tFriday 20 February 2026 11:24 am
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\t\t\tFriday 20 February 2026 11:25 am\n\t<\/p>\n
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\t\tHMRC enjoyed a record inheritance tax haul in 2025\t<\/p>\n
The government raked in a record amount of cash from inheritance tax, as receipts for the unpopular levy<\/a> were boosted by frozen thresholds sucking in a record number of taxpayers and ballooning asset prices.<\/p>\n The exchequer collected a total of \u00a37.1bn between April 2025 and January 2026 from the tax, official HMRC figures show, a \u00a3100m jump on the same period last year.<\/p>\n The intake was carried higher by the years-long freeze of the threshold at which inheritance tax is levied on people\u2019s estates. The main nil-rate band has been held at \u00a3325,000 since 2009, meaning more people\u2019s estates are dragged above the threshold with rising asset prices and inflation. <\/p>\n The process \u2013 known as fiscal drag \u2013 has helped drive consecutive years of record receipts from the 40 per cent levy, which is applied on assets passed down as someone\u2019s death. <\/p>\n On top of the \u00a3325,000 cut off, there is also a \u00a3175,000 allowance for households inheriting a main home from a relative.<\/p>\n \t\tGovernment crackdown to carry inheritance tax receipts even higher<\/p>\n The record<\/a> figures<\/a> come before the spate of changes announced by Rachel Reeves in the 2024 Budget to inheritance tax come into force, with most due to kick in in April this year. <\/p>\n At her maiden fiscal event, the Chancellor clamped down on a host of decades-old carve outs from the levy enjoyed by farms, family-owned businesses and shares held on London\u2019s junior stock market, Aim.<\/p>\n She also brought an end to the longstanding relief on pensions savings, which will be brought under the inheritance tax net from April 2027<\/a>.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tRead more<\/p>\n \t\t\tLondon families to shoulder nearly a quarter of all inheritance tax bills\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n Mike Winstanley, director of wealth management at Bentley Reid, said the the figures show \u201cdirection of travel\u201d for future inheritance tax hauls \u201cis clear\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cFor clients, the impact is increasingly material,\u201d he added. \u201cInheritance tax at 40 per cent is not marginal, it meaningfully alters the intergenerational transfer of wealth.<\/p>\n \u201cWhere an\u00a0estate\u00a0sits at \u00a33\u20135 million, the\u00a0tax\u00a0liability can comfortably exceed \u00a31 million without structured planning in place.\u201d<\/p>\n The figures were further bolstered by a years-long trend of rising asset prices,<\/a> bolstering the overall value of households\u2019 estates. Since the start of 2024, the FTSE 100, London\u2019s index of blue-chip companies, has risen by some 38 per cent, while the S&P 500 \u2013 the US equivalent \u2013 has been carried 43 per cent higher on an frenzy of of tech and artificial speculation.<\/p>\n