11/24/2025 10:55:09 AM | less than a minute read

Who will want to be an executor now?

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Tessa Bonser

Senior Associate

Get in touch

Tessa Bonser

Senior Associate

Whether you agree with the proposed increases to inheritance tax or not, there is one thing that is for certain – the role of an executor will be increasingly tricky.

Executors have the duty to pay any inheritance tax which is due. Under current proposals, executors will be liable for the tax due on pensions but will not have the asset in their control from which to pay the tax.

Added to this, executors will have to find a way to pay the tax on assets that were previously subject to business property or agricultural inheritance tax relief. These assets are usually held in either companies or partnerships – again, assets where the executor does not have control other than an interest in the partnership share or company shareholding.

Being a non-professional executor for family or friends has always been a labour of love, as it is such an administrative burden. For some, the added pressure of finding the tax in these new challenging circumstances may be a labour of love too far…

Ahead of the Budget, STEP, the professional body for trust and estate practitioners, is reiterating the need for the government to reconsider some of its proposals in the Finance Bill 2025-2026. STEP warns that the proposed reforms to Agricultural Property Relief (APR) and Business Property Relief (BPR) will negatively impact smaller family businesses, farms, older business owners and their families. Younger owners will be able to take out insurance to cover the inheritance tax (IHT) bills or do lifetime planning. This is not an option for elderly farmers and others who are at serious risk of being hit by unexpected tax bills. Plans to tax unused defined contribution pension funds risk bringing delay and unfairness in the administration of even quite simple estates, at a time when people are dealing with bereavement.

www.step.org/...