In this General Election year it is is heartening to see that the Tories and Labour have lost no time in opening their respective campaigns.
Over Christmas the Conservative Party claimed that the estates of more than 4 million people are now liable for an inheritance tax charge averaging £60,000.
Shadow treasury secretary Phil Hammond used official figures, the Office for National Statistics' Wealth in Britain report, to calculate that 4.3 million people live in homes where the average personal wealth is above £325,000, taking into account spousal exemptions and transferable nil rate bands. He says the average liability of £60,000 per person, equivalent to a national total of a beefy £254 billion, is a "cautious estimate".
The Tories believe they have an electoral advantage in inheritance tax policy following the promise to extend the nil rate band to £1 million. Labour, on the other hand, has just announced it is freezing the nil rate band at £325,000 until 2011.
So, unsurprisingly, the Conservatives have an incentive to overestimate the numbers of estates within the chargeable band while Labour is motivated to underestimate it.
Of course, none of this is news as the Labour government has always claimed that the tax is paid only by a tiny minority of estates, about 3 per cent, and disputes the Tory estimate of 10 per cent.
Whichever party you believe, if any, it's always a good idea to have a realistic grasp of what your tax bill might be and if you don't like the amount that could be winging its way to the Chancellor's department then contact me to discuss the tax saving opportunities.