capital gains tax<\/a> and stamp duty to pay.<\/p>\n\u201cIt feels like whatever you try to do, there are challenges. It is just so unfair. We already have to pay tens of thousands of pounds in business rates just for the privilege of trading out of a building which we already own.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are taxed enough already as it is. We should not be taxed again when family members pass away.\u201d<\/p>\n
Charlotte had her own career in banking, but when her mum Lisa Pheazey, 78, retired in 2016, she took over and is now managing director of the business.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe plan is to keep it in the family. I have two sons and my brother has a daughter, so hopefully one of them will become the ninth generation to take it forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have lots of long standing customers who come to us because we have been here for such a long time and we are a very trusted local business.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it seems the Government just doesn\u2019t care about things like that and doesn\u2019t understand the challenges small businesses are facing. We feel like we are being attacked at all angles.<\/p>\n
\u201cInheritance tax can kill businesses like ours. We are a very cashflow intensive business and buying stock is very expensive. If we were landed with a big inheritance bill, it would be a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bryony Cove, partner private client at Farrer & Co, said: \u201cFamily businesses do feel very aggrieved at the level of tax they have to pay on an unknown event, such as a family member\u2019s death in the future, which they have to fund out of a liquid asset. That has always been the case.<\/p>\n
\u201cDeath duties and inheritance tax do affect a family\u2019s ability to sustain their businesses. Extra tax bills are always unwelcome and people running family-run businesses feel very emotionally attached to their businesses, which makes things all the more difficult for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
David Little, partner in financial planning at Evelyn Partners, told The i Paper that in this situation, as the commercial property is owned by the mother and aunt, it is not anything to do with the business, and IHT would be payable as part of their estates, depending on the thresholds.<\/p>\n
However, to answer Charlotte\u2019s fears about if a second death occurred soon after IHT had been paid, meaning it would have to be paid again, he explained that something called Quick Succession Relief would be able to be used.<\/p>\n
This is an IHT relief that reduces the tax burden on an estate when the same assets are taxed twice within a five-year period. It allows a percentage of the IHT paid on the first death to be credited against the IHT due on the second death.<\/p>\n
Little said: \u201cQuick Succession Relief is not used very often because when people inherit an asset, they generally hope to survive longer than five years to enjoy it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe concept behind it is that if someone passed away and inheritance tax was paid on that, if the person who inherited then died within five years of inheriting, there is a relief which tapers down over the five years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Little added that because the business does not own the building, recent changes to business property relief will not affect them.<\/p>\n
He explained that if the mother and aunt decided to make the property part of the business, they would have to pay capital gains tax on any gain made as it is not their main residence. The jewellery business would also have to pay stamp duty to buy the building.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt might be an idea to look into this and look into the numbers. It is weighing up the cost for the business to buy the property against what the IHT saving would be.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Government spokesperson said: \u201cWe\u2019ve listened and raised the relief threshold to \u00a32.5 million to protect more small family businesses, while ensuring the largest make a fair contribution so we can deliver support for families and businesses, including cutting the cost of living.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Charlotte McCrossin always knew she would take over her family-run business when her mum retired \u2013 but more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":623106,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[84,44162,4176,10562,10429,664,2222,4174,4175,1892,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-623105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-business-rates","tag-finance","tag-inheritance","tag-inheritance-tax","tag-jewellery","tag-money","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-taxes","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=623105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/623106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=623105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=623105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=623105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Gatwards](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/SEI_299382378.jpg\")
Gatwards the jewellers has been trading out of its building for over 200 years and is now in its eighth generation (Photo: Ian Scott Photography)<\/p>\n