This shocking research, from Stroud & Swindon Building Society, also revealed that this problem would be faced within one year by homeowners in Greater London.
Home owners in the South East will have four years before they are affected by IHT, and East Anglia will only have to wait six years if house prices continued to rise at the current rate.
If the current annual growth in the IHT threshold continued at 3 per cent, even regions with traditionally lower house prices, such as Scotland and the North West, will eventually be affected.
While the timeframe that this research reveals is concerning, it is likely that IHT will hit most households even earlier if they boost the average amount of savings or have other taxable assets.
Paul Chafer, sales director from Stroud & Swindon Building Society, said: Many ordinary consumers still assume that they dont have sufficient assets to be liable for inheritance tax. However, this research shows that in eight years if a person owns the average UK home, they are likely to be liable for inheritance tax at 40 per cent of everything over the IHT threshold.
This is potentially a huge amount and when consumers have already been paying tax on their income their whole lives, seems a completely unjustified penalty. Therefore we actively encourage all homeowners to speak to an independent financial adviser to make sure that they are not leaving an unnecessarily high tax bill.
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