Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if her Department will make an (a) estimate of the potential costs and (b) assessment of the potential merits of extending inheritance tax relief to long-term cohabiting and co-dependent siblings.

There is a longstanding inheritance tax exemption for transfers between spouses and civil partners to reflect the formal legal obligations that marriage and civil partnerships involve. As with all taxes, reforms to inheritance tax, such as the potential extension of this exemption to transfers between cohabiting siblings, will be kept under review as part of the normal policy making process and the Chancellor will announce any changes to the tax system at fiscal events in the normal way.