Where this fits
Whether the freeze affects you depends on the size of your estate and how fast it is growing.
Sunny Bharj
Independent Financial Adviser
Tony Springer
Independent Financial Adviser
Until 5 April 2031. The nil rate band stays at £325,000, the residence nil rate band at £175,000 and the point at which the residence band starts to taper at £2 million. The Budget on 26 November 2025 added a year to the freeze, and Finance Act 2026 made it law.
The bands do not rise with inflation while they are frozen, so an estate that grows in value moves closer to them. HMRC estimates that the extra year alone brings about 2,100 more estates into inheritance tax in 2030 to 2031 than if the bands had risen with consumer prices.
From 6 April 2027 unused pension money also counts toward the estate, against the same frozen bands. Pensions and inheritance tax covers what that catches.
The nil rate band has been £325,000 since April 2009 and stays there until 5 April 2031.
£325,000 a person, plus up to £175,000 where a home passes to direct descendants. Tax is charged at 40% on the estate above the bands available to it.
Where both bands transfer in full and a home passes to children or grandchildren, a married couple or civil partners can have up to £1 million between them. The residence band tapers on estates above £2 million.
A Budget can propose any change to inheritance tax, and a change would need legislation. As at 13 October 2026 the frozen figures are the law.
From 6 April 2026, 100% relief applies to the first £2.5 million of qualifying business and agricultural property combined, and 50% above it. The unused allowance transfers to a surviving spouse or civil partner.
Whether the freeze affects you depends on the size of your estate and how fast it is growing.
Independent Financial Adviser
Independent Financial Adviser
The first conversation takes about twenty minutes and is at no cost to you. Tell us what is on your mind: a pension you have lost track of, a fixed rate ending, a will you keep meaning to write.