Leicester:

Monday - Friday 8.30am to 5.00pm

Ashby:

Monday - Friday 10.00am to 4.00pm by appointment only

Corby:

Monday - Friday 9.00am to 5.00pm by appointment only

Scutt Beaumont Solicitors Ltd

Leicester:

0116 2544200

Ashby:

01530 563999

Corby (Covering Kettering):

01536 744847

Scutt Beaumont Solicitors Ltd,  Registered Office, 102 New Walk, Leicester, LE1 7EA

Tel: 0116 2544200   Fax:0116 2545511 email: info:sbs-solicitors.co.uk

Scutt Beaumont Solicitors Ltd is regulated and authorised by the Solicitors Regulation Authority

SRA No: 534313

Vat Registration Number: 620289553

Company Registered in England and Wales No.: 07182302

The £300,000 allowance for Inheritance Tax (IHT) for most married couples and civil partners was doubled in Alistair Darling's October pre-Budget report.

This applies retrospectively to widows and widowers who inherited their spouse's estate tax-free but were previously restricted to a single person's IHT allowance on their own deaths.

Some couples had previously boosted their allowance by changing the ownership of their family home to tenants in common and setting up nil-rate band discretionary will trusts. This arrangement could now be disadvantageous. With a discretionary will trust in place, the combined tax-free allowance would be £650,000 if the first partner died before 9 October 2007 and the second partner lives on till 2010 (£300,000 for 2007 and £350,000 for 2010). Without a trust, the same couple's tax-free allowance would be £700,000, as the higher 2010 allowance is applied to both partners' assets.

If you have set up a will trust for IHT purposes, you may benefit from taking further legal advice