Inheritance tax investigations catch out 1200 more families in HMRC crackdown

Where there is a suspicion inheritance tax has been underpaid, HMRC has extensive powers to check the deceased individual’s financial affairs and chase what is owed. Will you pay more?

HMRC bill on doormat
Inheritance tax investigations catch out 1200 more families in HMRC crackdown
(Image credit: Getty Images)

HMRC has opened more than a thousand extra investigations into families where it believes people have not paid the right amount of inheritance tax, according to new figures.

The number of official probes into families’ financial affairs has jumped in the 2024/25 tax year to 3,961. This is up from just 2,807 in the previous year – a 41% increase.

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Laura Miller

Laura Miller is an experienced financial and business journalist. Formerly on staff at the Daily Telegraph, her freelance work now appears in the money pages of all the national newspapers. She endeavours to make money issues easy to understand for everyone, and to do justice to the people who regularly trust her to tell their stories. She lives by the sea in Aberystwyth. You can find her tweeting @thatlaurawrites