The familiar words, ‘…in this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes’, are taken from Benjamin Franklin’s correspondence on the subject of the new US constitution in the late 18th century and, despite the huge changes to the world in which we live over the following more than 200 years, the quote seems as pertinent now as it did when it was written. 

Taxation on the estate of a deceased person, the point at which Franklin’s two certainties collide, has an even longer history in UK, with the first version, ‘Probate Duty’, being introduced in 1694.

There is, however, growing speculation that we may see a seismic change to the taxation of personally held wealth in the UK which, for the first time in over 300 years, would see no tax being charged on the value of a deceased’s estate.