An uncle has demanded an end to “discrimination” against childless couples when it comes to inheritance tax. 

In last year’s budget, the Government raised the tax free allowance for inheritance tax from €335,000 to €400,000.

However, the change only impacts children inheriting assets or cash from the parents or from some grandchildren. 

Everyone else starts paying inheritance tax at a much lower rate. 

On The Pat Kenny Show, End Discrimination in Inheritance Tax for Childless Citizens (EDIT) spokesperson James Sexton explained why he believes the current system unfairly discriminates against him and his wife. 

“We don’t have a family of our own but we do have a family of loved ones - we married in our 40s,” he said. 

“When we got married, we were advised at the time to make our wills and we discovered that the inheritance tax rules treat parents very differently to that of childless citizens. 

“Sheila and I, we’re not able to pass tax free the same amount of our fully taxed assets to our loved ones as that afforded to parents. 

“Parents can pass assets of €400,000 tax free to each of their children. 

“Whereas, Sheila and I, we’re only permitted to pass assets of up to €40,000. 

“That’s obviously 10 times less; we believe that to be discriminatory and inequitable.” 

Silver keys hanging from a door. Picture by: Alamy.com.

Mr Sexton continued that he believes that the threshold should be the same, putting an end “to the discrimination that is faced by all citizens without children”. 

“Consider a house that’s valued at €300,000,” he said. 

“There’s a childless person that wants to pass that to a nephew or a niece upon death. 

“That nephew or niece will have an inheritance tax bill of €85,000 to pay within 12 months. 

“And that home will almost certainly have to be sold, often against the wishes of the deceased owner. 

“The parent leaving the same home valued at €300,000 to a child, there will be no tax to pay at all.” 

He noted that if a person leaves money or property to someone they are not related to, the tax bill will be even larger.

Main image: An elderly man counts money at a table. Picture by: Lino Mirgeler/dpa