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Swindon sisters take IHT battle to Strasbourg
Two elderly sisters who live together are challenging UK inheritance tax laws in the European courts because they are not exempt from the rules like married or same-sex couples.
The couple, who have lived together since birth, designed and built their current home on the Marlborough Downs near Swindon in Wiltshire some 40 years ago. The property is estimated to be worth £875,000. But under IHT rules, which currently apply a 40% levy to estates valued over £285,000, if one of them dies the other would be hit with a large tax bill probably forcing her to sell the house to foot the costs.
The sisters want the law changed so that cohabiting siblings have the same rights as married couples, which exempts the surviving half from inheritance duty.
Joyce Burden, 88, and Sybil, 80, decided to act after the Civil Partnership Act 2004 granted the same right to gay and lesbian couples, but not to cohabiting family members.
They have written to the chancellor every year since 1976 requesting that cohabiting siblings be made exempt from IHT but to no avail.
Lawyers for the sisters argue they are being discriminated against under the terms of the European Convention of Human Rights and that unmarried sisters living together as long as the Burdens should be given the same rights as married or same-sex couples.
"We are looked down upon for being single," Sybil Burden told 'The Times'. "We just want to be treated as equal citizens and given the rights we deserve."
A hearing was originally scheduled for July 4, but was postponed until today because the government had not fully prepared its case.
The court will discuss the "merits and admissibility" of the legal action. If judges decide the case can proceed, it could take years before a verdict is reached.
Joyce said these were just stalling tactics: "They're just hoping we die before we get to court. But they don't know how determined we are to see this through."
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