Dawn Joughin: Beware - HMRC inheritance tax probes are on the rise

Over its 30-year history in the UK, inheritance tax (IHT) has never been straightforward. Since a new allowance for family homes was introduced in April 2017, however, thousands of new IHT investigations were opened by HMRC in the 2018/19 tax year, according to a freedom of information request by wealth management group Quilter. In total, there were 5,537 investigations among the 22,000 estates that were liable for IHT in that period - a figure that equates to nearly 25% of the total. The figures is some 8% from 5,354 in 2016/17, the previous tax year. Despite only 5% of estates being...