Inheritance Tax Planning in Reading and the Thames Valley

Inheritance tax in the Thames Valley - why more families are now caught

Reading property values have moved a long way over the last two decades. Family homes across Caversham, Sonning, Henley, Maidenhead, Marlow now regularly sit between £550,000 to £1.8m across the Thames Valley prime corridor. The Nil-Rate Band has been frozen at £325,000 since 2009. The arithmetic has not been kind to the average homeowner.

Add a workplace pension or SIPP, modest investments and a life policy paid into the estate, and a Reading household that never considered itself wealthy now sits comfortably above the available thresholds. The 40% tax above the threshold is unforgiving.

Many families across the Thames Valley are now facing an inheritance tax exposure that did not exist a generation ago - and most have not had the position properly assessed.

The April 2027 pension change - urgent for Reading families

From 6 April 2027, unused pension assets sit inside the taxable estate for inheritance tax. For Reading families with thames valley tech executives, exposure will increase materially overnight.

An asset that previously passed outside the estate will, from that date, be taxed at 40% where the estate exceeds the available nil-rate bands. Death-benefit nominations, drawdown strategy and the use of life cover in trust should be reviewed in advance of the change - not after it.

The planning lead time is short. The earlier the position is reviewed, the more can be done about it.

Our work across Reading and the Thames Valley

Estate planning and inheritance tax services for clients across RG, SL and HP postcodes - Reading, Henley-on-Thames, Wokingham, Maidenhead, Marlow, Newbury and the surrounding areas. Will writing, trust planning, Lasting Powers of Attorney, inheritance tax review, pension coordination and lifetime gifting programmes - all delivered as a single coordinated plan rather than a sequence of separate documents.

Our Reading clients tend to include Thames Valley tech executives, Microsoft and Oracle senior staff, professional service partners commuting into London, and long-established Berkshire family businesses.

Meetings available by video call and telephone as standard, with in-person appointments arranged where appropriate. The advice and the indemnity are identical to a face-to-face engagement.

28 years of estate planning practice

We have advised UK families on inheritance tax, wills and trusts for 28 years. Our practice is based in Bournemouth with a Mayfair presence, and we work with clients across the whole of the UK and with UK nationals living abroad whose estates cross more than one jurisdiction.

Every engagement begins with a free, no-obligation 30-minute consultation. You leave it with a clear picture of where the estate currently stands and what, if anything, needs to happen next.