Inheritance Tax Act 1984 Schedule 6 paragraph 2

Surviving spouse or former spouse

Paragraph 2 of Schedule 6 provides transitional relief for surviving spouses or former spouses whose partner died before 13 November 1974, preserving the estate duty exemption that would have applied under the old rules.

• Where a person's spouse or former spouse died before 13 November 1974, certain property is excluded from the value of the survivor's estate on death for inheritance tax purposes.
• The property excluded is that which would have qualified for relief under the old estate duty rules for surviving spouses (section 5(2) of the Finance Act 1894).
• The same exclusion applies to settled property in which the surviving spouse held an interest in possession — no inheritance tax charge arises when that interest comes to an end.
• For the settled property exemption to apply, the value of the property must be of the type that would have been left out of account in valuing the survivor's estate had they died immediately before the interest ended.