Phizackerley 'does not affect nil-rate trusts'

Julie Hutchison, estate planning specialist at Standard Life, says conferences on IHT and trust planning have for several years raised a risk point about nil-rate band will trusts, however until now any discussions have ended by pointing out “HMRC has not yet taken the point in a case as yet”. As a result, she says, the decision by the Special Commissioners for Tax in the test case of Phizackerley Vs HMRC not to exclude from the estate’s IHT liability a loan made from his wife’s nil-rate trust to Dr Phizackerley, should not come as a surprise. “Many people will consider that it was just...