RICS outlines benefits of offering Inheritance Tax breaks

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) suggested this week that local councils should be free to cut deals with those who own expansive areas of land.

In return for releasing prime development sites, the owners of the 5,000 largest estates could be given incentives such as a partial IHT exemption or an arrangement which allows heirs to avoid paying taxes on any properties built on their land.

RICS believe that the offer to reduce the burden of death duties, which inevitably falls heaviest on those with the largest homes, would also help address the chronic shortage of affordable homes in rural parts of the UK.

Jeremy Blackburn, the organisation’s head of policy, said: “We would like to see local authorities work sympathetically with estate owners to encourage the release of land for eight or more affordable houses, based on long leaseholds, which would allow estates to retain long-term interests.”

Sir Peter Erskine, the sixth baronet of Cambo, said that large estates had the chance to play a part in the local community.

“Over the years we have dealt with an increasingly hostile political atmosphere and we are only just emerging from a brutal and punitive tax system,” he said.

“When I inherited from my father [in 2008] we were paying 98p in the pound in tax. It is only now that we can start looking out from under our stones.”

• For advice on Inheritance Tax planning, please contact Tony Millson and Deanna Hurst in Royds’ Private Client team.