IHTM25302 - The ownership test: Meaning of ownership

For the purposes of the ownership test ( IHTM25301) (including the three situations where the general rule is relaxed) we consider ownership to have the following meaning:

• in the case of settled property in which there is no interest in possession, legal ownership by the trustees
• in all other cases, beneficial entitlement ( IHTM04031), which includes entitlement to settled property in which the deceased/transferor had a beneficial interest in possession (IHTM16060).

In view of IHTA84/S91, where an unadministered residuary estate ( IHTM22025) includes business property, a residuary beneficiary is treated as owning the business property, or an appropriate share of it.