Left with a tax bill?

The effect of capital gains tax on estates is examined by CLARE MUNRO.

YOU WOULD HAVE to have spent the last decade in media-free exile not to be aware of the stratospheric appreciation in UK house prices in recent years. The impact on the Exchequer's inheritance tax take is well documented; the potential complications with capital gains tax following a death are not.
In most simple estates assets will be transferred to appropriate legatees in short order and without creating a disposal for CGT purposes. Legatees inherit assets with a CGT base cost stepped up to market value and when they eventually sell the assets the gain is calculated in the normal way. The personal representatives simply act as conduits and the continuum of ownership rolls on with no gaps each owner paying tax on gains realised during his tenure.
However ...