In an increasingly tortuous tax world, attempts at simplification of the endless intractable rules usually seem to falter at the first hurdle. Now the Chancellor Philip Hammond has called for an overhaul of the hugely complex inheritance tax (IHT) regime, describing it as ‘not fit for purpose’, and asking the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) to come up with proposals to reform the current IHT rules, first introduced in 1986.

Ironically, it is successive governments that have complicated the rules, shying away from increasing the thresholds to keep in line with inflationary pressures on house prices. Instead, the hugely complex IHT residence nil rate band was introduced, which benefits married couples and civil partnerships with property assets, giving them potentially up to a £1m tax free estate by 2020, but leaves anyone without children unable to use the additional allowance as it is only for direct descendants.