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Britain's most hated tax has leeched £100million more out of bereaved families in the last year as tax thresholds remain frozen. Experts warned that inheritance tax is no longer reserved for the "mega wealthy" after the Government revealed it earned £7.7billion from the death duty between April 2025 and February this year, £100million higher than the same period last year.

Many grieving families have been dragged into paying the bill in recent years because the tax-free nil-rate threshold of £325,000 has been frozen since 2009, while assets such as property prices have surged in value. Chancellor Rachel Reeves confirmed in the Autumn Budget that thresholds would remain frozen until April 2031, meaning they will have stayed unchanged for 22 years, triggering widespread backlash.

Ian Dyall, head of estate planning at wealth management firm Evelyn Partners, said the figures reiterated that IHT was "no longer a marginal concern affecting only the very wealthiest".

"The expansion of IHT is not a result of sudden shifts in wealth, but rather years of fiscal drag. Nil rate bands have been frozen for many years while asset values, particularly property, have continued to inflate."

Brits have to pay the Government 40% of any assets passed on by loved ones above the £325,000 threshold, which increases to £500,000 if the home is passed on to children, meaning families may have to sell their properties to afford the tax bill.

Mr Dyall warned that when the Government drags unspent pension funds into IHT calculations from April 2027, even more will be pulled into the net.

He said this change, first announced in the 2024 Autumn Budget, would place "additional pressure on beneficiaries who may not consider themselves affluent".

Shaun Moore, tax and financial planning expert at Quilter, added that the upcoming change to farming inheritance tax would "begin to shift the system".

Labour announced that it would reverse its decision to cap agricultural and business property reliefs at £1million from April, after sustained pressure from farmers who said it would jeopardise the industry and threaten UK food production, since expensive farming equipment easily pushes them over the threshold. Reeves confirmed it would rise to £2.5million, or £5million for couples.

But Mr Moore said that even with April's reforms, "the direction is tightening". He warned: "IHT is certainly no longer a tax aimed only at the mega wealthy."

The treasury acknowledged that the higher receipts were "expected" from March 2022 due to a combination of the frozen threshold and rising asset values, and a higher volume of wealth transfers following recent liable deaths, in its monthly tax receipts update on March 20.

It partially attributed higher receipts between June 2022 and December 2025 to a "small number" of higher-value payments than usual.