§ Mr. Denzil Daviesasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many estates are likely to benefit in a full year from, respectively, the proposal to exempt from duty up to £15,000 left to a surviving spouse, the proposal to grant relief for gifts of up to £50,000 in favour of charities, and the proposed new scale of rates for estate duty.
§ Mr. HigginsOut of nearly 40,000 estates that would have been liable to estate duty next year before the proposed changes, about 15,000 will benefit from the exemption from duty of up to £15,000 left to a surviving spouse; of these about 10,000 will be wholly relieved from duty. A further 5,000 will be exempted by the increase in the threshold and all estates remaining liable to duty will benefit from the new scale of rates. It is not possible to estimate the number of estates which will get some benefit from the relief for gifts to charities; the number becoming exempt as a result of this relief is likely to be small.