Speak to a specialist inheritance and estate planning solicitor at our law firm in North Yorkshire. Our inheritance tax planning solicitors can help with your estate planning needs.
Get In Touch With Our Inheritance & Estate Planning Solicitors
When you die, your estate – the combined value of your assets such as property, investments and cash holdings minus any liabilities such as debts – may be subject to Inheritance Tax (IHT).
Our solicitors provide clear inheritance tax planning advice to help you understand your position and plan ahead with confidence.
If you have considerable assets or are a high-net-worth individual and haven’t planned your estate carefully, the 40% Inheritance Tax can amount to a significant cost those who stand to inherit. With careful planning, you can ensure your beneficiaries receive the maximum amount possible from your estate.
Crombie Wilkinson Solicitors has experienced estate planning solicitors who can help create an inheritance strategy that works for you. We’ll calculate your predicted Inheritance Tax levels based on the value of your estate and assist you in potentially reducing this bill with structured estate planning and use of available Inheritance Tax reliefs.
Contact us for Inheritance Tax legal advice
UK Inheritance Tax changes in April 2026 could affect how wealth, businesses and assets are passed down to the next generation.
With allowances and reliefs under review, careful estate planning can help preserve family wealth [AA1] and ensure assets transfer smoothly to children or other loved ones.
Read more about the April 2026 Inheritance Tax changes.
Inheritance Tax is a tax that may have to be paid on your estate by your heirs when you die. It affects the final amount your heirs will receive from your Will and can be a sizeable sum if not planned for correctly.
Inheritance Tax is paid at 40% over the ‘nil rate band’ (NRB). NRB is effectively an IHT “personal allowance” and is currently frozen at £325,000 until 2030. It only becomes liable if the total value of the estate exceeds that amount.
Inheritance Tax thresholds and allowances
A ‘residence nil rate band’ (RNRB) was introduced in April 2017, which reduces IHT when the deceased’s main residence is left to their direct descendants (children or grandchildren). The current RNRB is £175,000, and is added to your NRB of £325,000. This means your estate could be worth up to £500,000 before any Inheritance Tax is due.
The Autumn Budget 2024 also announced that inherited pensions will be brought into inheritance tax from April 2027.
Inheritance Tax isn’t usually due on inheritances between civil partners and married couples. This means that if a person dies and leaves their total estate to their spouse or civil partner, the inheritance will be entirely tax free.
The NRB is also transferable between partners. As none of the deceased partner’s NRB will have been used, it can be passed to the surviving spouse or civil partner – effectively doubling their IHT threshold.
IHT applies to assets owned by UK domiciled individuals (people who permanently reside in the UK) and UK-based assets owned by individuals living abroad, regardless of nationality.
As you can see, calculating inheritance tax can be complex, so it is important to seek professional inheritance tax advice when planning your estate.
Read our Inheritance Tax FAQs for more information, or contact our team.
Estate planning is the act of reviewing your current estate and identifying the most tax-efficient way of transferring assets to your next of kin.
Our solicitors provide clear, practical estate planning advice to help you structure your assets and plan for the future. By planning your inheritance in advance, you can help reduce the amount of tax due. This may include gifting, charitable donations or the use of trusts.
You can make an estate plan as part of your Will, which will specify how your assets are managed and divided when you pass away. The plan also includes the values of your assets.
One of the most common strategies for reducing your inheritance tax bill is to give away money or assets during your lifetime.
Some gifts are entirely exempt from IHT. These include:
Some gifts, known as potentially exempt transfers (PET), are subject to conditions, including the 7-year rule.
There will be no Inheritance Tax to pay when you make the gift, but if you die within seven years, the gift may be included in your estate and IHT may be payable. This is called the ‘7-year rule’.
As long as you live for seven years after giving the gift, no Inheritance Tax will be due. Gifts made less than three years before death are subject to the full 40% charge, while gifts made between three and seven years are taxed on a sliding scale.
With careful estate planning, farmers and their families can benefit from Agricultural Property Relief (APR) to reduce their Inheritance Tax bill.
APR is offered at two rates – 100% and 50% – depending on the ownership and management of the farm at the time. Our inheritance tax planning solicitors can help you understand how APR applies to your specific circumstances.
One of the best things you can do to preserve the 100% Inheritance Tax relief on your farm is to never officially retire from the business. For this reason, it is a good idea to begin having these conversations with your potential successors while you’re still working, to ensure everyone is on the same page and your roles are clear.
If you’re a farmer, Crombie Wilkinson has agricultural law experts who can help you make sense of the rules surrounding farm Inheritance Tax. We’ll work with you to manage your estate planning so that your beneficiaries receive the highest possible value from your estate.
Without proper estate planning, the unexpected death of a business owner can create significant disruption. For this reason, it is crucial that business owners have a carefully outlined and legally clear succession plan in place, in addition to a plan for their personal assets.
At Crombie Wilkinson Solicitors, our business law solicitors work with business owners to plan their estate in a way that benefits their beneficiaries and the business itself.
Business owners, partners and shareholders may be entitled to Business Property Relief (BPR), which allows their beneficiaries to claim tax relief – either 50% or 100% – on any business assets included in their estate.
It’s also worth noting that investing in a BPR-qualifying business can be an effective and clever way to quickly reduce your estate’s inheritance tax bill. BPR-qualifying assets become exempt from Inheritance Tax after just two years – unlike gifts and trusts which only become IHT-exempt after seven years.
High net worth individuals, especially, may consider business investment a strong estate planning strategy. It ensures you retain ownership and a degree of control over your money, in addition to offering a chance to potentially increase its value.
When a person dies, having left a Will, they will usually have appointed an executor. The advantage of having an executor is that there is somebody who can act immediately to sort out urgent matters and, also, to deal with personal affairs. In contrast, when someone dies intestate, a vacuum immediately arises.
Apart from the need for a relative or friend to apply for Letters of Administration before anything can be done, and this can take many months, assets are distributed under the intestacy law and that may be not as the person wished. If the deceased has left a surviving spouse or civil partner, they will inherit the first £250,000 of an estate if there are children. The children will then inherit half of the remainder, whilst the spouse will have a life interest in the other half and when they die, that half also goes to the children. If there are no children, the surviving spouse or civil partner will inherit the first £450,000, half of anything else, with the rest of the estate going to other family members.
Such an arrangement can be further complicated so far as joint property is concerned, because joint property, including bank accounts and other investments, usually will go to the joint, surviving owner in any event.
There is a particular problem concerning co-habiting partners. There is no provision under an intestacy for them, despite the fact that a very large number of couples prefer to live together. There is currently a debate on whether or not to alter the law but the problem will be defining who is a co-habiting partner.
If you do not have a Will, you are not in a minority as best estimates suggest that about 2 out of 3 adults in the U.K. are in the same position. That is a startling statistic because intestacy means your near family may not be properly provided for and you have no opportunity of directing where special possessions go nor to make gifts to friends or favoured charities. Above all, an intestacy can lead to a court case, the last thing most families want.
Making a Will is a straightforward process. Most people’s wishes are fairly simple and expert solicitors can reflect those wishes quickly and easily. A Will means you can choose who will handle your affairs, they can do so quickly, and you can direct who will receive your property. At what is always a difficult time, a Will gives a lot of peace of mind.
An inheritance and estate planning Solicitor can structure your assets in a tax-efficient way to help ensure your loved ones can make the most from your Will. Contact our Estate Planning Solicitors in York, Malton, Pickering and Selby today.
For more information about making a Will, please speak to our Private Client team.
Planning ahead can make a significant difference to how your wealth is passed on.
Our experienced Inheritance Tax planning solicitors can provide clear, practical advice tailored to your circumstances.
Contact us today to speak to an Inheritance Tax adviser about your estate planning options.
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