Over the past five years there has been a 49% increase in IHT revenue.
IHT revenue was a record £1.7bn in first half of 2006, up £200m or 13% from the first half of 2005. IHT revenue collected in the first half of 2006 matches total IHT revenue collected over the full financial year 1997/98, only eight years ago.
The number of estates paying IHT rose by 72% over the five years to 2003/04 to 30,451. The Government's own estimates suggest a further 22% increase in the number of estates paying the tax by the end of 2006/07 to 37,000.
Halifax projects that the revenue collected by the Exchequer from IHT could rise to £5.5 billion a year in today's money by 2020. That is a 244% increase from the £1.6bn the Exchequer received in 1996/97, the last time the IHT threshold was raised significantly.
