Sisters lose fight for tax recognition
29 Apr 08
Human rights court refuses discrimination claim in Burdens' fight against inheritance tax
Two elderly sisters who share a house have lost their fight to avoid inheritance tax when one of them dies.
Joyce, 90, and Sybil Burden, 82, from Wiltshire have lived together all their lives. They claim their £875,000 Marlborough home would have to be sold when one dies, because of the 40% inheritance tax that would apply to the part of the deceased sister's half share of the property over the tax threshhold, currently £312,000.
After losing in the UK courts the sisters had appealed to the European Court of Human Rights, claiming that they should have the same tax rights as married and gay couples, but in a 15-2 vote the judges in Strasbourg said they did not face unfair discrimination. The Grand Chamber of the court upheld an earlier chamber ruling that governments were entitled to discretion when deciding taxation arrangements.
The sisters have been trying to resolve the matter since 1976, when they first wrote to the Chancellor of the Exchequer asking for the same tax recognition as cohabiting couples. In 2004, they approached the Human Rights Court after gay and lesbian couples were given the same inheritance tax rights.
The ruling said that because there was no legally binding agreement between the sisters, their case was fundamentally different from that between a married or civil partnership couple.