Save Inheritance Tax With Political Party Donations
Published / Last Updated on 11/12/2023
What is a Political Party Gift?
If you make a gift of money, property, land or other assets to a qualifying political party, these are immediately exempt from inheritance tax, and you do not have to play the 7 year 'waiting game' that applies to Potentially Exempt Transfers (PETs).
See PETs: Inheritance Tax PET
Minimum Criteria for a Qualifying Political Party
To qualify as a political party that can receive gifts that are immediately exempt from inheritance tax, the party must have achieved the following at the last general election:
- two members of the political party were elected to the House of Commons as Members of Parliament (MP), or
- one member of the party was elected as an MP in addition to the whole party achieving at least 150,000 votes secured for all candidates combined from the voting public.
The political parties which qualified for exemption following the general election on 12 December 2019 were:
- Conservative Party
- Democratic Unionist Party
- Green Party
- Labour Party
- Liberal Democrat Party
- Plaid Cymru Party
- Scottish National Party
- Social Democratic & Labour Party
- Sinn Fein Party
The Social Democratic & Labour Party was a new addition to the list of political parties that qualify for exemption following the general election on 12 December 2019 with the rest remaining unchanged from the previous general election on 8 June 2017.
