Inheritance Tax Act 1984 section 272

General interpretation

Section 272 provides a glossary of defined terms used throughout the Inheritance Tax Act 1984, ensuring consistent interpretation of key concepts across the legislation.

• The section defines over fifty terms used in the Act, ranging from fundamental concepts such as "tax" (meaning inheritance tax), "property," "estate," and "settlement" to more technical terms like "conditionally exempt transfer," "excluded property," and "transitional serial interest".
• Several definitions incorporate the residence-based regime introduced from 6 April 2025, including the new concept of "long-term UK resident" (defined in sections 6A to 6C) and an updated definition of "foreign-owned" property, which now refers to whether a person is a long-term UK resident rather than relying solely on domicile, with transitional rules for settlors who died before 6 April 2025.
• Many definitions cross-refer to other sections of the Act or to other legislation — for example, "charity" takes its meaning from the Income Tax Acts, "registered pension scheme" from Part 4 of the Finance Act 2004, and "open-ended investment company" from the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.
• Where a settlor is a body corporate rather than an individual, references in the Act to the settlor being alive or dying are to be read as references to the body corporate being in existence or ceasing to exist.