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Section 154: Death on active service, etc.

Inheritance Tax Act 1984 · 1984 c. 51View on legislation.gov.uk

Part V: MISCELLANEOUS RELIEFS — CHAPTER V: MISCELLANEOUS

The reliefs in subsection (1A) apply in relation to the death of a person in whose case it is certified by the Defence Council or the Secretary of State—

that he died from a wound inflicted, accident occurring or disease contracted at a time when the conditions specified in subsection (2) below were satisfied, or
that he died from a disease contracted at some previous time, the death being due to or hastened by the aggravation of the disease during a period when those conditions were satisfied.

The reliefs are—

that no potentially exempt transfer made by the deceased becomes a chargeable transfer under section 3A(4) because of the death,
that section 4 (transfers on death) does not apply in relation to the death, and
that no additional tax becomes due under section 7(4) because of a transfer made by the deceased within 7 years of the death.

The conditions referred to in subsection (1) above are that the deceased was a member of any of the armed forces of the Crown or a civilian subject to service discipline within the meaning of the Armed Forces Act 2006 and (in any case) was ...—

on active service against an enemy, or
on other service of a warlike nature or which in the opinion of the Treasury involved the same risks as service of a warlike natureor

Section 153A(3) to (5) applies for the purposes of this section.

In relation to any time before 28th July 1981 (the date of the passing of the Armed Forces Act 1981), the reference in subsection (2) above to membership of the armed forces of the Crown shall include a reference to employment as a person of any of the descriptions specified in paragraph 1(3) of Schedule 7 to the Finance Act 1975 (women's services).

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This legislation text comes from legislation.gov.uk. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. These source and reuse terms cover the legislation text, not Remedy's commentary.

Reuse reviewed 21 August 2026 under Open Government Licence v3.0.