The government announced today that, with immediate effect, it is closing two artificial schemes designed to avoid inheritance tax charges on relevant property trusts. First, where a person transfers property into a trust in which they retain a future interest they will be charged inheritance tax if they become entitled to an actual interest under the trust. Second, where a person purchases an interest in a trust, that interest will be treated as part of their estate for inheritance tax purposes. Draft legislation is published today. The government is also to examine wider solutions to the problem of trusts being used to avoid inheritance tax charges.