The Government is proposing a change in law to impose Inheritance Tax (IHT) of up to 40% on all private pensions. IHT is a tax on a transfer of value. Chancellor Reeves has deliberately and carefully worded her proposed legislation to exclude the type of final salary and public sector pension schemes that she, MPs and Civil Servants enjoy.

The IHT exemption for pensions was meant to help families pass residual pension funds down the line to try and reduce the burden on the State: most retirees have inadequate pension provision. Chancellor Reeves has now chosen to raid private pensions to aid her plugging the huge gap in State finances, and this will kick the pensions problem down the road for future Governments and generations to pick up the retirement shortfall bill.

There is already a statutory method for valuing the transfer of value of benefits for final salary pension schemes and so there is no excuse to give the likes of MPs and Civil Servants and their families a special privilege.

This petition calls for ALL pension schemes to be treated equitably by imposing IHT on final salary pension schemes too so that their scheme members also do their fair share in dealing with the Government’s debt problem