Stealth taxes are rising – here’s how to protect your money before 5 April April 2, 2026 Niche taxes like inheritance tax and capital gains tax are fast becoming major cash cows for the treasury. Here’s what to do before the end of the tax year Britain’s stealth tax is accelerating, with more people being pulled into the net without realising it. The government is collecting more from capital gains tax (CGT) [...]
Family-run construction firms pushed ‘to brink’ by inheritance tax April 1, 2026 Family-run construction firms are being pushed to the brink of insolvency by reforms to inheritance tax which undermine Labour’s housebuilding target, a trade body has warned. Plant-hire firms – which provide machinery and services to the construction sector – are almost always family run and are being forced to scale back by inheritance tax changes, [...]
Awful April: brace for a wave of stealth tax rises March 31, 2026 April is upon us and the new tax year will usher in a range of tax hikes, despite the absence of any headline rate rises, with frozen thresholds, shrinking allowances and tighter reliefs set to hit families, workers and savers. The harsh impact will also be felt as Brits are hit with a wave of [...]
Inheritance tax changes are showing family businesses the door March 25, 2026 From 6 April inheritance tax relief on agricultural and business assets is being slashed. The very businesses that benefit the UK’s economy are the ones that are most exposed to these IHT changes, says Mark Goddard For more than three decades, business relief on inheritance tax has acted as the safety valve which allows entrepreneurs [...]
Rocco Forte: Inheritance tax grab has endangered my family firm March 25, 2026 With luxury outposts across Europe, and plans to expand to the Gulf, Rocco Forte Hotels has become one of Britain’s most successful hospitality exports. But after being hit by a wave of damaging policies – including a potentially existential inheritance tax crackdown – he tells Ali Lyon, he is more disillusioned with Britain now, than [...]
Labour’s inheritance tax reforms face legal test as farmers argue unlawful consultation March 16, 2026 The UK government is set to defend its inheritance tax raid on agricultural assets and family firms in the High Court this week. The proposed changes to agricultural property relief (APR) and business property relief (BPR) represent one of the biggest shifts in UK inheritance tax (IHT) policy in decades. After a year of protests [...]
Scrap inheritance tax! March 16, 2026 Inheritance tax is burdensome, distortionary and barely raises any revenue. Get rid of it now says Kristian Niemietz If you work in Westminster, you treat protest marches as part of the background noise. I have been working in SW1 since the late-stage Gordon Brown era, and I have certainly seen my fair share of those [...]
Labour told to scrap ‘arbitrary’ inheritance tax system March 15, 2026 The UK government is being urged to scrap the inheritance tax system following warnings that that it enforces the UK as a “high-tax outlier” and risks stifling investment and driving entrepreneurs abroad. A new report from the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) highlights that nearly half of the 38 OECD countries – where members are [...]
Legal battle over Labour’s inheritance tax reliefs set for March hearing February 27, 2026 The legal challenge to proposed changes to agricultural property relief (APR) and business property relief (BPR) has been listed for an urgent two-day hearing next month. The proposed changes to APR and the BPR represent one of the biggest shifts in UK IHT policy in decades, following the government’s initial increase of the threshold to [...]
Inheritance tax haul hits another record February 20, 2026 The government raked in a record amount of cash from inheritance tax, as receipts for the unpopular levy were boosted by frozen thresholds sucking in a record number of taxpayers and ballooning asset prices. The exchequer collected a total of £7.1bn between April 2025 and January 2026 from the tax, official HMRC figures show, a [...]