Have inheritance tax changes simplified death? STEPHEN HAGGETT considers the 2007 PBR and the continued importance of flexible trusts
A Scottish case concerned whether or not the widow had an interest in possession in settled property. The husband had transferred certain securities and investments to the trustees of an inter vivos trust created for his wife in 1962. He died in 1981, and up to that time the income from the trust had been regarded by the Revenue as that of the husband. The wife died in 2002. The Revenue determined that, under IHTA 1984, s 221, she had had an interest in possession in the settled property. The trustees appealed.