Is your business or farm still free of inheritance tax?
Not everything a business owner or farmer owns gets relief. Check each asset: full, half or no relief, and why, then see the inheritance tax.
Your answer
Tell us about your first asset to see whether it gets relief.
About this calculator
For business owners and farmers who want to know whether each asset still gets relief from inheritance tax, before they rely on it.
It's a rough guide to HMRC's rules, not a valuation or a ruling: HMRC decides on the facts when the time comes.
What happens to your answers
We don’t keep them. Your answers go to our server to do the sums and aren’t stored or logged. If you copy a link to your answers, they’re in the link itself, so only share it with people you trust.
How it’s worked out
Business Relief gives full relief on shares in an unlisted trading company and on a business or partnership share, and half relief on AIM shares and on property used by a company you control or a partnership you're in. There's none on letting businesses, investment businesses, anything with a sale agreed, or anything owned for under 2 years. Agricultural Relief covers farmland and farmhouses on their value as farmland only: full if you farm it (2 years) or it's let on a tenancy from 1 September 1995 (7 years), half on older tenancies.
From 6 April 2026, full relief stops at £2.5 million across business and farm property together, with half relief above. Half-relief assets get half whatever, outside the allowance. We then work out the tax the same way as our farm and business inheritance tax calculator.
Worked example
These assets would add about £320,000 of inheritance tax, because not all of them get full relief.
your own allowances · other estate £500,000 · no home in the sum · no credit for property inherited from a spouse or replacing other business property · more than half in investments loses relief
| Asset 1 (company shares), owned 10 years | £2,000,000 |
|---|---|
| Relief rate: 100%. Shares in an unlisted trading company, owned 2 years or more: full relief. | 100% |
| Asset 2 (property your business uses), owned 10 years | £800,000 |
| Relief rate: 50%. Property used by a company you control or a partnership you're in gets half relief (50%). | 50% |
| Asset 3 (let property), owned 6 years | £400,000 |
| Relief rate: 0%. Letting property is an investment, not a trade, so no relief. Holiday lets usually don't get it either. | 0% |
| Value that gets full relief (100%) | £2,000,000 |
| Value that gets half relief (50%), outside the allowance | £800,000 |
| Value with no relief | £400,000 |
| Relief: full on the first £2,500,000, 50% above, 50% on half-relief value | − £2,400,000 |
| The rest of your estate | £500,000 |
| Your estate after relief | £1,300,000 |
| Less the tax-free amount | − £325,000 |
| Inheritance tax at 40% | £390,000 |
| Of which, because of these assets | £320,000 |
| If every asset got full relief | £210,000 |
| What the gaps in relief cost | £180,000 |
Worked out using HMRC's Business Relief and Agricultural Relief rules and the inheritance tax rates from 6 April 2026, in the 2026/27 tax year. Not legal advice.
Questions people ask
Does our partnership agreement affect relief?
It can. If it says a partner's share must be sold to the others when they die (a "buy and sell" agreement), HMRC treats that as a binding contract for sale and gives no relief. An option to buy, which the others can choose to use, doesn't lose relief.
Do holiday lets get Business Relief?
Usually not. HMRC's view is that furnished holiday lets are an investment, even with cleaning and guest services, and the courts have mostly agreed.
Why doesn't my farmhouse get relief on its full value?
Agricultural Relief only covers what it would be worth if it could only be used for farming. Any extra value as a country home or for building gets no farm relief.
More free calculators
Talk to us about your tax.
A free call with the team. We’ll contact you within 24 hours.