The chancellor’s freezing of inheritance tax will contribute to more and more people being caught out by ‘stealth’ taxes over the next five years.
Autumn Budget documents reveal chancellor Rishi Sunak’s freezing of inheritance tax bands will raise an additional £985m by 2025/26.
This sum is in addition to £990m which will be raised from freezing the pension lifetime allowance and £65m through maintaining the annual exemption of capital gains tax by 2025/26.
Commenting on the figures, Andrew Tully, technical director at Canada Life, predicted increasing numbers of people would be caught out as the Treasury raises more than £2bn in “stealth taxes”.
“With property prices and investment markets rising, it’s clear that more and more people are going to be caught out by these taxes,” Tully said.
“These eyewatering sums will inevitably fund some of the significant spending pledges announced today.”
Advisers will be left disappointed that today’s tax reforms did not extend to any reduction in insurance premium tax, with some calling for the reduction or removal of IPT from health insurance products ahead of the chancellor’s speech.