Meg Saksida explains inheritance tax planning essentials involving business property relief to ensure you retain this valuable relief.
Business property relief (BPR) serves to reduce inheritance tax (IHT) in the death estate by either 100% or 50%.
Most business property is entitled to a 100% reduction. Trading partnerships, sole traders, unquoted shares in a trading company and unquoted securities in a trading company (if the owner controls the company) are all entitled to a full reduction for IHT purposes. Hence, BPR is an extremely valuable IHT relief.
The 50% rate is reserved for those who control listed companies (I’m not sure that I personally know that many people who control listed companies), and plant and machinery and land and buildings held personally and used in a company by the controlling shareholder or in a partnership by one of the partners.
