Inheritance tax raised £2.1billion in the three months to June as frozen thresholds mean more people's assets are being caught in the net, official data shows.

Inheritance tax (IHT) receipts were £83million higher than they were at the same point in 2023 the figures from HMRC show.

The current £325,000 nil rate band, which has not changed since 2009, is set to be frozen until at least 2028, meaning more households will have to pay out as the value of their assets rise.

Laura Hayward, tax partner at Evelyn Partners said: 'With both property and financial market assets continuing to surge in value, there is no prospect that this long-standing trend will abate: more estates, and more assets in each liable estate, will be dragged over the frozen thresholds at which IHT kicks in.'

The Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts that the share of deaths resulting in the payment of IHT will rise to 6.3 per cent by 2028/29, the highest level since the 1970s. The proportion was lower than 3 per cent in 2009/10.

'Revenue from inheritance tax and its predecessors has increased over time in real terms, from around £2billion in 1980/81, to £7.5billion in 2023/24, and will reach almost £9billion by 2028/29 (all amounts in 23/24 prices),' said Hayward.

IHT receipts have been on an upward trajectory over the last few years, as more households' assets fall into the taxable amount.

HMRC says higher receipts from March 2022 are due to the higher volumes of wealth transfers following recent IHT-liable deaths, recent rises in asset values, and the Government's decision to maintain the threshold.

Hayward added: 'With the baby boomer generation now hitting their sixties and seventies, some of that generation's accumulated wealth is being passed on to children and grandchildren, and getting taxed on the way.

'The 'great wealth transfer' is also underway because many of the older, weather generations are making lifetime gifts to their families. 

'As the wave of inheritance is set to grow over the next 30 years to a transfer of £5.5trillion, the temptation for successive Governments will be to tap into it to plug gaps in the public finances.'

Labour has remained tightlipped on whether they might make changes to the current IHT system.

While it committed to not raising income tax, VAT or National Insurance contributions, it did not say whether it would raise IHT.

The only reference made in its manifesto related to offshore trusts and non-doms, so all eyes will be on Chancellor Rachel Reeves' autumn statement to see what changes, if any, will be made.