U turn on the proposed increase in Probate Fees

Despite an earlier indication that the increased Probate fees were being rushed through the Houses of Parliament, the Government has announced that these fees are now to be scrapped, at least until a future Government is elected, on account of there not being enough time for the legislation to go through the parliamentary process before the General Election.

This is clearly very good news, because the new fees were effectively a death tax and would have penalised certain groups of persons, such as farmers and landowners, unfairly. UTK have been lobbying our MP Simon Hart and the Country Land and Business Association, in order to have the increase in fees stopped, and STEP (the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners) has played a very active role in seeking to have these new charges removed.

It is good to see that this has all paid off, at least for the time being!