Inheritance Tax Act 1984 section 143

Compliance with testator's request

Section 143 deals with the inheritance tax treatment of property that a legatee transfers to other persons in compliance with a wish expressed by the testator, provided the transfer takes place within two years of the testator's death.

• Where a testator expresses a wish that property left by will to a legatee should be passed on to other persons, and the legatee complies within two years of death, the property is treated for inheritance tax purposes as if it had been left directly to those other persons by the will.
• The testator's wish does not need to be in writing, but it must have been expressed in terms sufficiently certain that a court could have given effect to it had it been legally binding.
• The legatee must carry out the transfer within the two-year period following the testator's death for the relief to apply.
• If the legatee does not comply with the testator's wish, the wish has no inheritance tax consequences and the property remains treated as a bequest to the original legatee.