Inland Revenue 3
                                                 17 March 1998

            INHERITANCE TAX:  INCREASE IN THRESHOLD
______________________________________________________________

The inheritance tax threshold will be raised by 8,000 pounds 
from 215,000 pounds  to 223,000 pounds for tax charges arising
on or after 6 April 1998.   

DETAILS

1.   The current inheritance tax threshold is 215,000 pounds. 
The increase to 223,000 pounds for the tax year 1998-99 is in
line with the rise in the Retail Prices Index in the year to
September 1997.

2.   Very few people pay IHT.  The estimated number of
taxpaying estates in  1998-99 will be about 17,500, as
compared with around 16,500 in 1997-98.  This is less than 3
in 100 of all death estates.  The estimated yield from IHT in
1998-99 will be about,900 million pounds.  

3.   Other proposed changes to inheritance tax are covered by
a separate press release, Inland Revenue 31.

NOTES FOR EDITORS

1.   Inheritance tax (IHT) was introduced in 1986 to replace
capital transfer tax.   The legislation (section 8 IHT Act
1984) provides for the IHT threshold to rise automatically in
line with indexation unless Parliament decides otherwise. 
With only  indexation since 1986, the threshold would have
been 118,000 pounds in 1998-99.  The threshold has in fact
risen by more than three times the increase in the Retail 
Prices Index.  

2.   Measured against an indexed base, the cost of the
increase is nil.  Against a  non-indexed base, the increase
will cost about 30 million pounds in 1998-99. 



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