The tax-free allowance on inheritance could rise to £2 million, new plans mooted by the Conservative party suggest.
The Conservative party is set to propose raising the inheritance tax threshold for British couples to £2 million, the Daily Telegraph reports.
Shadow chancellor George Osbourne is said to be behind the plans, which, if implemented, would see each person given a £1 million tax-free allowance on inheritance. Mr Osbourne originally proposed raising the threshold at the party's conference last October.
The £2 million limit would comes about due to cohabiting couples being allowed to transfer each other's £1 million allowances to the surviving partner when one of them dies.
Speaking at conference in 2007, Mr Osbourne said: "The next Conservative government will raise the inheritance tax threshold to £1 million." Following this speech, chancellor of the exchequer Alistair Darling raised the inheritance tax allowance from £300,000 to £600,000.
This move was widely seen as an attempt to co-opt an apparently popular Tory policy, however. The allowance is also not currently transferable between partners.
The new plans have come to light, according to the newspaper, in a reply to a question on inheritance tax from a member of the public by shadow leader of the house of commons Theresa May.
"I am happy to confirm that our inheritance tax proposal will introduce a threshold of £1 million per person (not per couple)," she is said to have written. "This means that it would be possible for a married couple to enjoy a threshold of £2 million."
