IHTM20651 - Life Policies: Technical note on discounted gift schemes issued on 1 May 2007: Background

Following press interest, HMRC set out their approach to discounted gift schemes (DGS) and their interaction with the Inheritance Tax (IHT) legislation in May 2007. The note issued at that time set out HMRC’s practice but did not seek to prescribe the approach that must be taken to establish the chargeable value for IHT. The note made it clear that other approaches may be used to arrive at broadly similar results and that HMRC continue to be open to considering and agreeing alternative valuation bases that achieve that aim.