Role of the tax adviser in will drafting

A recent decision in the First-tier Tribunal N Hall and another (as trustees of Carolina Raboni deceased) (TC8691) concerned whether an interest in possession arose in a ‘cash poor’ estate where a ‘companion’ occupied the house after the widow left her house to her five nieces and nephews. The deceased had granted her friend and companion the right to live in the house rent-free other than insurance and maintenance costs for the rest of his life. The property was not to be sold without his consent. The companion moved into the house after she died in 2004. It could be argued that with the value of the family home having increased and the nil rate band staying frozen that there could be more estates in 2023 coming into inheritance tax. The Taxation article ‘Whose house is it anyway’ by Katherine Bullock (9 March 2023) looked at tax...