Inheritance Tax Act 1984 section 87

Newspaper trusts

Section 87 extends the inheritance tax exemptions available to employee benefit trusts under section 86 so that they also apply to trusts whose principal assets are shares in newspaper publishing companies or newspaper holding companies.

• Trusts holding shares in newspaper publishing or holding companies can benefit from the same IHT treatment as employee benefit trusts under section 86.
• The trust must hold shares in a newspaper publishing company or newspaper holding company as its only or principal property.
• A newspaper holding company must hold shares in a publishing company as its main asset and must control a majority of votes on matters affecting the publishing company.
• Other assets in the trust or holding company are permitted only to the extent reasonably required to support the operation of the newspaper publishing company.