Why is the government forecasting many more people will pay inheritance tax?

Posted on

Whilst doing my day job (that is, tax research) I noted some odd data on the number of people HMRC think will be paying inheritance tax. This comes from their own spreadsheet on the issue suitably tailored to highlight the issue of concern:

Screen Shot 2014-05-06 at 17.37.59

I could just dismiss this as being typically, and wildly, optimistic forecasting of the type that seems to pervade all the HMRC data on tax collection for the next few years, most of which has very obviously been put together to keep political masters seeking a balanced budget happy, but maybe there is another explanation as to why HMRC think both lifetime IHT payments and the number of chargeable estates will rise significantly from 2010-11 on (which is the last year fro which we have any real information). If so, can someone remind me what it is, because right now apart from an optimism about growth I can't think of a good reason. I have checked in the budget statement and apart from freezing thresholds - which supposedly and highly improbably will apparently almost double revenues in six years, there is no hint of a reason.

Any assistance appreciated.


Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:

You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.

And if you would like to support this blog you can, here: