HMRC Inheritance Tax: Customer Guide

How do I value business interests and partnerships?

• What value do I use?
• What if the deceased was a Lloyds Underwriter?

What value do I use?

You should include in the estate the net open market value of all the deceased's business interests.

Ideally, accounts for the business should be prepared at death and it will be total of the deceased's capital and current accounts that will be the starting point.

Remember, though, that the value for capital assets in accounts is usually the 'book' value, and this is often different from the open market value that is required for inheritance tax.

Where necessary, you should increase (or decrease) the value of the business interests that is shown in the accounts to reflect any adjustments that are necessary through replacing the 'book' value with the open market value.

What if the deceased was a Lloyds Underwriter?

If the deceased was an Underwriter at Lloyds, you should include their business portfolio of shares as an interest in a business.