Andrew Tully: IHT on pensions roll-out continues to 'defy logic'

The government's consultation on the draft legislation to pull unused pensions within inheritance tax (IHT) has just closed. In drafting our response, it highlighted how many poor outcomes are introduced by using IHT to collect tax from pensions passed on after a member's death. On top of that, it creates a huge amount of work for HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) itself, which fails to meet the government's desire for modernisation and improving efficiency. There are, of course, other options to the IHT route. Using income tax or a one-off ‘death tax' would be much more straightforward. Ex...