The political debate over which party originated the plan to reform inheritance tax is irrelevant and should be put aside to focus on more improvements to the levy, according to a senior member of the ACCA UK.
The remarks by the body's head of taxation, Chas Roy-Chowdhury, follow the latest attempt by the Government to prove it did not steal the idea for IHT changes from its Conservative rivals.
When, during last month's Pre-Budget Report speech, the Chancellor announced adjustments to IHT, including transferable allowance for spouses and civil partners, he was immediately accused of copying opposition plans. A week before the PBR, the Tories had promised to raise the IHT threshold to £1m.
The Government has claimed it has Treasury documents that prove it first considered inheritance tax reforms as long ago as January — and some of these details are now available via the Freedom of Information Act.
However, the Treasury will not be releasing all the policy papers because it believes they would not be in the public interest.
Mr Roy-Chowdhury said that the argument about which side first formulated the changes is 'not relevant'.
He pointed out that 'the Treasury mulls over all sorts of ideas', so it was likely it would have already considered at some point all the policies currently being debated.
What is of greater importance, said the ACCA representative, is that there is 'more thought given to full relief'.
'There is no capital gains tax on principal private residences — and we think this should apply for inheritance tax, too.
'The interchangeable nil-rate band is long overdue and, although we are glad it is al last being addressed, it is something we have been saying was needed for some time.
'But politicians have been slow to react in dealing with the inequities of IHT.'