The Wiltshire-based law firm, Royds Withy King, has contributed to a public consultation run by the Office of Tax Simplification on how the UK’s inheritance tax regime could be made simpler and more accessible.

The firm’s team believes the current regime is overly complex which in some cases can lead individuals to buy unsuitable products to mitigate their tax bill, sometimes getting them in to trouble with the tax man. The team also believes it makes the UK a less attractive place for international workers and investors.

Samantha O’Sullivan, a partner in the private client team, said: “The rules and processes of inheritance tax and its interaction with other tax codes is very complicated.

“As we’ve seen all too often, the best efforts of ‘simplifying’ often have the very opposite effect and can be disadvantageous to people who want to plan for the future and structure their estates cost-effectively.

“We believe the only real solution is for the government to scrap the current regime and start again – but as this is unlikely, we wanted to put forward our views and recommendations based on our experiences of helping clients to find solutions to many of the issues.”

The Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) will publish its report in the autumn.