Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many applications were made for inheritance tax in the last five years.

The personal representatives of a deceased’s estate must submit an IHT400 account to HMRC, unless the estate qualifies as ‘excepted’. In that case, they used to have to submit the shorter IHT205 form (C1 and C5 forms in Scotland). Following reporting requirement changes, these shorter forms are no longer required for deaths occurring after 1 January 2022.

HMRC publishes data on the number of such forms submitted for deaths occurring in a particular tax year. The most recent tax year for which complete data is held is 2019-2020, and is available in Table 12.3 of the Inheritance tax statistics here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/inheritance-tax-statistics-table-123-estates-notified-to-hmrc-numbers-and-tax-due.

Data for 2020-2021 will be published on 26^th July.