Osborne to raise inheritance tax threshold to £1m

The Chancellor George Osborne is set to confirm an increase in the inheritance tax (IHT) threshold to £1m per couple in this week's Budget.

He is expected to tell MPs on 8 July the threshold at which the tax is levied will rise for couples from £650,000 after April 2017. Currently, IHT applies at 40% on estates above a tax-free allowance of £325,000 per person. The Conservatives pledged in their election manifesto that, from April 2017, parents would each be offered a further - and transferable - £175,000 "family home allowance". Under the new rules, a couple with a house worth £1m will be able to pass it all, tax free, to their children. Writing in The Times last weekend, Prime Minister David Cameron and Osborne sa...