DM Fryer & Others (P Arnold's Personal Representatives) v HMRC

Personal Tax: IHT: deferment of pension benefits

In DM Fryer & Others (P Arnold's Personal Representatives) v HMRC (TC00398 – 15 March) a woman had been born in 1942. In 1995 she set up a discretionary trust. Later that year she took out a pension plan. It was agreed that if she died before taking her retirement benefits then the value of those benefits would pass to her discretionary trust. In 2002 shortly before her 60th birthday she was diagnosed as suffering with terminal cancer. She died in 2003 without having taken the available benefits. HMRC issued a determination charging IHT on the basis that by failing to take her retirement benefits when she reached the age of 60 in 2002 she had made a disposition of value for the purposes of IHTA 1984 s 3(3). Her personal representatives appealed contending firstly that...