Inheritance Tax hitting Hammersmith residents

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Average amount to be paid per HF home could be as much as £35,200.

Due to the surge in Hammersmith & Fulham property prices in recent years, thousands more local residents are now subject to Inheritance Tax, a report by financial services group, Friends Provident, published this week has revealed. Hammersmith & Fulham Conservative Parliamentary Spokesman, Greg Hands, wants to see an end to what he calls 'the most unfair tax of them all'.

The Friends Provident Report revealed that up to 500,000 extra people nationwide were caught in the inheritance tax trap last year - largely due to the increases in house prices compared to the threshold at which the tax has to be paid.

Inheritance Tax is charged at a punitive rate of 40p in the pound on everything above the £263,000 threshold - just £500 higher than the average London home - and much less than the vast majority of homes in Hammersmith & Fulham. A price guide on popular property website, findaproperty.co.uk, shows that the only properties in Hammersmith & Fulham worth less than the threshold would be studio and small one bedroom flats.

A report in the Daily Telegraph on 11 August 2004 also reveals that in Hammersmith and Fulham, the average amount of inheritance tax to be paid per home could be as much as £35,200.

Greg said: "Inheritance Tax is the most unfair tax of them all - essentially it is a tax on dying.

"There can be nothing more unjust about working hard all of your life, paying tax as you go, only to have forty per cent of your wealth forcibly taken away by the Government when you die. Most people want to see their estate passed onto their children, or charities, not re-taxed and taken away. With property prices so high in Hammersmith & Fulham, this hits local people doubly hard!"

22/8/04