Son wipes out inheritance and left owing £100k after 15-year family feud

Yahoo

7 days ago

A son has been hit with a £282,000 inheritance tax bill following a 15-year legal battle with his family.
Sharas Changizi had been locked in a bitter dispute with his mother and three siblings since his father's death in 2010, according to court documents.
His siblings had given away their shares of their father's estate to their mother in 2012 using a deed of variation, which allows beneficiaries to redistribute their parts of the estate.
As the surviving spouse, Mrs Changizi was an exempt beneficiary – meaning her portion of the estate should have been free from inheritance tax.
However, Mr Changizi refused to give his share to his mother and argued that inheritance tax should be charged on the estate as a whole, and not just on his share.
The family paid the £282,000 inheritance tax bill, including interest, but insisted that Mr Changizi was actually liable for the costs.
In a judgment reached in April 2025, the High Court held that the family's approach of charging the son's share with all of the inheritance tax was correct.
Mr Changizi already owed the family £116,000 in court costs following years of bitter litigation, which included him trying, and failing, to challenge the validity of the will.
Together, these court costs and the inheritance tax liability ate up Mr Changizi's £300,000 share of the estate and left him owing his family £102,000, court documents show.
The case shines a light on the potential complications of splitting the estate between exempt beneficiaries – such as spouses and charities – and non-exempt beneficiaries.
Claire Roberts, of accountants Moore Kingston Smith, said: 'It has long been understood that inheritance tax on a non-exempt share of an estate is paid from that share and that exempt beneficiaries receive their share in full. In this case, the appellant arguably tried his luck by suggesting otherwise.'
Mr Changizi had also received a payment from his father a year before his death.
Gifts made within seven years of a person's death are generally considered part of the estate for inheritance tax purposes.
Mr Changizi had tried to argue that the inheritance tax charge on this gift should not be deducted from his share of the estate, but this was dismissed in court.
Ms Roberts added: 'This serves as a cautionary reminder to testators to ensure that they understand the implications of making lifetime gifts in conjunction with the terms in their will.'
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