Marmite tax

CALLS for inheritance tax to be scrapped and replaced with another system proves it is a Marmite tax.

Those who like it see it as a way of redistributing r wealth. Those who hate it view it as an additional tax on assets on which they have already paid p income tax.

Inheritance tax collected has more than t doubled in the past eight years. One reason is the freezing of the nil rate band, the first part of an estate on o which no tax is liable.

It has been fixed at £325,000 since 2009 2 and is not scheduled to change until u 2020.

However, as house prices continue to rise, the amount of inheritance tax payable by even modest estates will increase.

There is bound to be tension between those who wish to see inheritance tax tackle the wealth gap and those who believe you should be able to pass on wealth as you wish, with minimum state intervention.

JOHN MCARTHUR, Edinburgh.