The Prime Minister said middle-class families should be spared the 40 per cent death tax on houses where they had lived for many years.
He wanted to "shoehorn" into his final Budget a policy to increase the £325,000 inheritance tax threshold, which is expected to take place next March.
That could see the allowance raised as early as April 2015, when the new tax year begins, although it could take longer.
"Inheritance tax should [only] be paid by the very wealthy, and I think you should be able to pass a family home on to your children rather than leave it to the taxman," Mr Cameron told a charity conference in London.
"The last government allowed you to pass it between husband and wife, so the effective threshold was £650,00, but I have got ambitions and would like to see that go further."
The renewed Tory push on inheritance came as part of a package of statements and events to woo elderly voters on Tuesday.
The Prime Minister said the allowance was inadequate in some parts of the country where house prices had soared. Properties in London and the South East typically cost more than the threshold at which 40 per cent tax charge is triggered. Official figures on Tuesday showed the average price in London is now £514,000, while it had reached £338,000 in the South East.
The Government's forecaster, the Office for Budget Responsibility, has said the proportion of estates attracting inheritance tax would double within the next four years from one in 20 today to almost one in 10.
Someone who didn't feel "mega rich" should be able to leave their house to their children "without having 40 per cent lopped off", Mr Cameron said.
His comments, made to pensioners at an Age UK event on Tuesday, were the strongest indication yet that the Tories might fulfil a pledge to raise the threshold to £1 million, made before the last election.
The move was credited with halting plans by Gordon Brown, the then Labour Prime Minister, to call for an early election. The Tories were unable to secure the agreement of the Liberal Democrats to make the pledge Coalition policy.
In March, Mr Cameron had hinted that an increased threshold might be part of the next election manifesto.
He said at the time: "We put in our manifesto that we wanted to take it to £1 million but we did not win an outright majority [and] the pledge did not make it into the Coalition agreement.
"It's something we'll have to address in our election manifesto."
It now appears a rise in the threshold might be pushed through as a Conservatives parting shot as the election approaches. The Conservatives have typically referred to the £1 million threshold with reference to the £650,000 allowance for a couple.
Mr Cameron told pensioners and older workers at the conference on Tuesday: "I do still have ambitions to do that, but even though I'm the First Lord of the Treasury, there is somebody called the Second Lord of the Treasury – that's the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
“I have got to try and shoehorn these things into his Budget. He is a pretty cooperative chap, but I've got my work cut out on this one. But he is keen on it too."
Original Article
Source: telegraph.co.uk/
Author: Dan Hyde
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