by Don Paskini

David Blackburn in the Spectator explains the horrors of inheritance tax:

Take one example: a family friend, who was a career soldier rising to the rank of Colour Sergeant, retired to a two-up two-down in suburban Essex and lived off a combination of state and service pensions for 27 years. He died in 2006 and his estate yielded £84,000 in inheritance tax. The deduction means that a maximum of 3 of his 4 grandchildren will enjoy the opportunities that a private education can offer; he had intended all four to do so, among other things, such as enabling his children to move up the property ladder.

I’m assuming this is the worst example of the iniquities of inheritance tax that Blackburn is aware of.

So the consequences are:



1. The family ‘only’ inherited about £420,000, having paid a lower rate of tax on the amount they inherited than if they had earned the money themselves by working.

2. One of the four grandchildren has to go to a state school, because £400,000 isn’t enough apparently to cover the private school fees for four children.

3. If his children want to move up the property ladder, they have to earn the money to do so themselves.

But, something like 93% of children go to a state school, fewer than 1 in 20 families inherit as much as £400,000 from their parents, and most people have to earn their own money if they want to get on or move up the property ladder.

In other words, Blackburn is complaining that inheritance tax forces his family friends to experience the same conditions as those which the overwhelming majority of people in Middle England have to put up with.

We live in a country where millions of families, including many in Middle England, are really struggling to find a job, pay the bills or keep a roof over their heads.

Before we decide that families who inherit half a million pounds shouldn’t have to pay a penny of it in tax, and every family which inherits over £1 million should get a £280,000 tax cut, shouldn’t we use the tax system to give more help to the people on middle and lower incomes who have actually worked hard and earned their own money?