The latest HMRC inheritance tax receipts published today have revealed that £5.7bn was collected in the first three quarters of the 2023/24 financial year.

That’s an 8% rise on the same period in the previous year when the figure was £5.3bn.

It means IHT already looks likely to raise yet another record annual haul for the Treasury, with estimates putting this year's total at £7.6bn, which would top last year's £7.1bn total.

Stephen Lowe, group communications director at retirement specialist Just Group, said: “We are now three-quarters of the way through the 2023-24 financial year and it is evident that the Chancellor can once again bank on record-busting IHT receipts for a third successive year."

He said freezing the thresholds has dragged more households into paying IHT, especially when combined with the property price rises of the last five years or so.

Mr Lowe calculated that at the current rate of collection, IHT will raise around £7.6bn for the Treasury in this financial year, far surpassing the OBR’s forecast of £7.2bn as well as last year’s all-time high of £7.1bn.

But with the Spring Budget a little over a month away, rumours continue to swirl around the potential for IHT to be scrapped as the government looks to cut taxes ahead of a General Election.

Mr Lowe said: “we may see the Chancellor prioritise political expediency in the coming Spring Budget as we rapidly approach the next general election.”

Helen Morrissey, head of retirement analysis at Hargreaves Lansdown said: “Reported government plans to axe inheritance tax at the last Autumn Statement were widely criticised, but with a mixture of frozen thresholds and historic house price growth pulling more people into the net, we may well see plans to reform this tax made a feature of March’s Budget.”

Shaun Moore, tax and financial planning expert at Quilter, said: “Abolition of IHT would certainly split voters and it’s likely that Labour would fairly rapidly vow to bring it back into force if they were to get in. This could therefore become a serious area of contention over the following few months if the Conservative party is minded to push ahead with abolition.”

He said regardless of which political party gets into government, simplification of IHT is overdue.