Political update: February 2026

CIOT and ATT each provided four briefings to MPs debating the Finance Bill at the Committee of Whole House, with LITRG supplying a further note to support MPs’ scrutiny of the Bill. The bodies’ technical and external relations teams also held oral briefings for both Conservative and Liberal Democrat frontbench Treasury teams, at which shadow ministers and their advisers raised questions on the legislation.

Points from our briefings were raised in four of the six debates at this stage of the Bill. During the debate on changes to agricultural and business reliefs for inheritance tax, Shadow Financial Secretary Gareth Davies drew attention to CIOT’s warning that the changes particularly trap more elderly farmers ‘who have been robbed of their ability to plan’. He also highlighted the Institute’s warnings about the difficulty that some families will face in paying the levy, as well as potential issues arising from the failure to allow allowances to be allocated to specific property. Lib Dem spokesperson Charlie Maynard noted CIOT’s suggestion of introducing transitional gifting rules to support older farmers who ‘have done the logical thing of hanging on to their land, but are faced with penalties for doing so’.

Warnings from both ATT and CIOT about the complexity involved with adding five new income tax rates were highlighted by Lib Dem deputy leader Daisy Cooper. She also pointed to a lack of clarity around the Chancellor’s promise to keep state pensioners out of income tax, noting that this issue had been highlighted by CIOT at the briefing she attended. The final issue on which our points were raised was inheritance tax on pensions, which is reported on above.