[16] For deaths occurring on or after 1 September 2006, the following estates are effectively excepted from liability for IHT: For claims to transfer the unused nil rate band from the estate of a predeceased spouse or civil partner, the following additional conditions apply: Where the gross value of the estate does not exceed £1 million and there is no tax to pay because either or both conditions relating to transfers to a spouse or civil partner, or absolute gifts to one or more charities, applies, and no other exemption or relief can be taken into account.

[23] For deaths occurring after 5 April 2012, the tax is assessed at 36%, where at least 10% of a specified baseline amount of the estate has been bequeathed as charitable gifts.

[26] There are several options available for estates to be able to achieve that threshold, such as having the will specifying relevant gifts in terms of percentages of assets, or successors executing a deed of variation to attain the desired result.

[27] The Chancellor of the Exchequer's Autumn Statement on 9 October 2007[28] announced that with immediate effect inheritance tax allowances (often referred to as the nil-rate band) were to be transferable between married couples and between civil partners.

In a judgement following an unsuccessful appeal to a 2006 decision by the European Court of Human Rights,[29] it was held that the above does not apply to siblings living together.

It is worth noting that as the Government seeks not to profit from the death of those who (a) gave their lives in military service, or (b) died from the results of a wound, injury, or disease associated with that military service, that the estates of such servicemen and women are exempt, totally, from any Inheritance Tax regardless of the value of the estate even if it amounts to millions of pounds as long as (a) or (b) apply....and that that exemption is then transferable to the serviceman's or servicewoman's widow or widower.

In the summer budget of 2015 a new measure was outlined to reduce the burden of IHT for some estates by providing additional tax-free allowances in cases where the family home passed to direct descendants.

A deal that had been made in 1993 ensured that The Queen was spared inheritance tax of an estimated £20 million on her mother's estate.

[41] In 2016 published letters and a prominent article in The Guardian by a leading accountant supported by Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn criticised the tax-exempt arrangements of many largest landowners and the most capital-endowed.

The unpublished size of the late Duke's death estate was thought to be comparable to the valuation of the family-related landholdings of £9 billion.

Critics claim inheritance tax impacts more on the living standards of the middle class and less on plutocrats and the super rich.

[44] This is designed to replicate the 40 per cent death charge once a generation (assuming a normal life span to be around seven decades).