Question
My mother is a widow in her nineties but still lives in the same house that she and my late father bought in the early 1960s. I also lived there from birth until I married and moved out in 1990. Will I be able to claim inheritance tax (IHT) relief for the time that I lived there?
Answer
Unfortunately, the period that you lived in the house will not count because you did not own the house at that time. However, it may not be all bad news for IHT purposes. If your father left everything to your mother when he died, she may well have inherited his ‘nil rate band‘. In addition, there are ‘residence nil rate band’ rules increasing the IHT nil rate band when the asset passing on death to the descendants of the deceased is the house that the deceased lived in. Further details can be found on the Gov.uk website Check if you can get an additional Inheritance Tax threshold.