Inheritance tax needs reform both for fairness and efficiency

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is expected to announce inheritance tax reforms in the October Budget as a way of raising funds and closing the fiscal “black hole”. James Forrester argues that inheritance tax is ripe for reform given that the many tax reliefs mean that only a fraction of estates that qualify for inheritance tax end up paying the current tax rate of 40 per cent, with some paying as little as 4 per cent.