Mark McLaughlin highlights some exceptions and quirks in the minimum period of ownership requirement for inheritance tax business property relief purposes.
Business property relief (BPR) is a popular inheritance tax (IHT) relief for business owners. BPR reduces the value transferred by transfers of value of certain types of business or business property by a specified percentage say 100% or 50%, depending on the type of property.
Unsurprisingly, certain conditions must be satisfied before BPR can be claimed. This article focusses on one such condition, concerning the length of time that relevant business property must be owned by the person making a transfer of value.
Two years…or less?
The ‘minimum period of ownership’ general rule for BPR requires that the
