Inheritance Tax Act 1984

48 Excluded property. U.K.

(1) A reversionary interest is excluded property unless—

(a) it has at any time been acquired (whether by the person entitled to it or by a person previously entitled to it) for a consideration in money or money’s worth, or

(b) it is one to which either the settlor or his spouse is or has been beneficially entitled, or

(c) it is the interest expectant on the determination of a lease treated as a settlement by virtue of section 43(3) above.

(2) In relation to a reversionary interest under a settlement made before 16th April 1976, subsection (1) above shall have effect with the omission of paragraph (b); and, if the person entitled to a reversionary interest under a settlement made on or after 16th April 1976 acquired the interest before 10th March 1981, that subsection shall have effect with the omission of the words “or has been” in paragraph (b).

(3) Where property comprised in a settlement is situated outside the United Kingdom—

(a) the property (but not a reversionary interest in the property) is excluded property unless the settlor was domiciled in the United Kingdom at the time the settlement was made, and

(b) section 6(1) above applies to a reversionary interest in the property but does not otherwise apply in relation to the property.

(4) Where securities issued by the Treasury subject to a condition of the kind mentioned in subsection (2) of section 6 above are comprised in a settlement, that subsection shall not apply to them; but the securities are excluded property if—

(a) a person neither domiciled nor ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom is entitled to a qualifying interest in possession in them, or

(b) no qualifying interest in possession subsists in them but it is shown that all known persons for whose benefit the settled property or income from it has been or might be applied, or who are or might become beneficially entitled to an interest in possession in it, are persons neither domiciled nor ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom.

(5) Where—

(a) property ceased to be comprised in one settlement before 10th December 1981 and after 19th April 1978 and, by the same disposition, became comprised in another settlement, or

(b) property ceased to be comprised in one settlement after 9th December 1981 and became comprised in another without any person having in the meantime become beneficially entitled to the property (and not merely to an interest in possession in the property),

subsection (4)(b) above shall, in its application to the second settlement, be construed as requiring the matters there stated to be shown both in relation to the property comprised in that settlement and in relation to the property that was comprised in the first settlement.

(6) Subsection (5) above shall not apply where a reversionary interest in the property expectant on the termination of a qualifying interest in possession subsisting under the first settlement was settled on the trusts of the second settlement before 10th December 1981.

(7) In this section “qualifying interest in possession” has the same meaning as in Chapter III of this Part of this Act.