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Madeleine Ross
Money Reporter
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As if bereaved families don’t have enough on their plate, they could now be chased by the taxman decades after a loved one dies under Labour proposals.
Changes, due to be included in the Finance Bill, are set to allow HMRC to demand information about a deceased’s finances long after an estate has been settled, potentially triggering family disputes and fresh financial uncertainty.
For inheritance tax, capital gains tax, and income tax, the current time limit to ask for information is four years. From April 2028, if an executor sees a mistake in a deceased person’s tax return and fails to report it, HMRC will treat that as deliberate error, and families could face a 20-year investigation period.
Under the plans, HMRC would need tribunal permission to request information more than four years after a death, but executors and relatives would not have to be told until after the tribunal had made its decision. Mike Warburton, The Telegraph’s tax expert, said that hearings held without families’ knowledge would be “particularly chilling”.
HMRC says the changes will help it share information across borders and focus on estates with links to other tax jurisdictions.
Richard Fuller, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, said: “It seems that even death won’t bring reprieve” from Labour’s tax policies and that families should be allowed to “grieve in peace”.
This report is only available for subscribers.
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Dominic Lawson
The catering empire behind the beloved tea rooms launched Leo, the first commercial electronic brain, 75 years ago this month
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David Frost
The Milburn so-called welfare reforms will save not a penny
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Julie Bindel
Labour’s new trans law is worse for gays and lesbians than Section 28
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• Russell Brand has been accused of sexual misconduct by six more women. The disgraced comedian, 51, is facing fresh allegations after being sentenced to more than a decade in prison this week for raping one woman and sexually assaulting three more.
• Angela Rayner has approved plans to house more than 1,200 migrants next to the Oxfordshire village of Piddington, despite the overwhelming opposition of residents.
• Labour’s trans law must not prevent parents from talking to children about gender and “impact healthy and challenging family conversations”, the Children’s Commissioner has said.
• Microsoft suffered a major global outage yesterday, leaving tens of thousands of users unable to access their emails and other programs, including Microsoft 365, Outlook and Teams.
• Cabinet ministers should accept budget cuts to help fund welfare reform and provide “sufficient resource” to fund an overhaul of the benefits system, Lord Blunkett has said.
• England 2-1 Croatia | Harry Kane scored the winner on his record-breaking 126th cap as England brushed aside Croatia to qualify for the Uefa Nations League quarter finals.
• Meanwhile, it’s been a different story for England’s cricketers so far who are in complete disarray against Australia in the first ODI. You can follow the latest updates from Perth here.
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Across Africa, Britain has been called an oppressor and confronted with demands for slavery reparations. However, one nation is celebrating the British Empire as a liberator, writes Craig Simpson, our Arts Correspondent, in Nkhotakota. Malawi is building a museum to raise awareness of the “forgotten” Arab trade that Britain sought to eradicate.
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The idea of dismissing one of Silicon Valley’s most powerful figures, and the driving force behind the AI boom, had seemed impossible to comprehend. However, the revelation that Jensen Huang, already compromised by an affair with a suspected Chinese spy, had conducted a second extramarital relationship, this time with one of his employees, piled more scrutiny on the 63-year-old Nvidia billionaire and provided more ammunition for US politicians calling for his head. By the time Nvidia’s board met on Wednesday, Huang’s position seemed untenable.
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Hire Tim Cook to lead Nvidia, Trump says ➤
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The British Army has hundreds of troops stationed in Estonia
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Welcome to the “grey zone” – a murky state between peace and war. Security chiefs call it a “hybrid war”, which Sir Alex Younger, the former head of MI6, describes as “everything that stays below the threshold of war ... from disinformation to sabotage to cyber or economic coercion”. Whether it’s hybrid, or shadow, there is a war on. Britain and the West need to start acting like it.
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Casually sipping a latte outside an Exeter café, a young Albanian dealer offered my undercover reporter a job selling cocaine, suggesting he begin before lunchtime, writes Chris Matthews. Armed with burner phones and false identities, we infiltrated a cartel dominating Britain’s drug trade. From TikTok adverts to deals near playgrounds, the operation proved brazen, but our investigation soon took a darker turn.
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There have been many sliding doors moments in the recent history of Manchester United, but those in charge at the club believe the biggest was their failure to sack Erik Ten Hag in the summer of 2024. When the Dutchman left chaos followed, through Ruben Amorim’s reign and now to the exit of Michael Carrick and the arrival of Mauricio Pochettino. James Ducker, our Northern Football Correspondent, has all the details.
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We all tell the odd white lie, but what happens when someone just can’t stop? Whether it’s your boss, your best friend or even your partner, compulsive liars can be surprisingly difficult to spot. Here, psychologists reveal the telltale signs that someone is pulling the wool over your eyes, and what to do about it.
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Anita Singh
Arts and Entertainment Editor
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The most fun story of the week comes courtesy of my colleagues on The Poshcast, Sophie Money-Coutts and Cleo Watson, and their interview with Rivals showrunner Dominic Treadwell-Collins.
He recounts his final conversation with Dame Jilly Cooper, who had been looking over the script for the series two finale. “Dom, it’s just filthy. Filthy!” she told him. At which point, Treadwell-Collins had to point out that she had written the scene herself, in the original novel.
“Did I? Oh my God, aren’t I naughty!” came the reply. Oh, Jilly, how you added to the gaiety of the nation. It reminded me that ‘80s bonkbusters provided the most outrageously fun sex scenes. Anyone who can recall their schoolgirl days reading illicit copies of Shirley Conran’s Lace and *that* goldfish scene will know what I mean.
For two things to watch, and one to avoid, read on...
Film
Ebenezer
★★★★☆
Johnny Depp gets his juiciest role since Sweeney Todd – and his biggest shot at a mainstream comeback since his career was consumed by controversy – in this Gothic horror spin on the Dickens classic.
Read the full review ➤
Television
Rivals
★★★★☆
The latest batch of episodes has just dropped, so enjoy a mini binge-watch of this high-class, highly sexed soap opera.
Read the full review ➤
Television
All’s Fair
★☆☆☆☆
Is this Kim Kardashian legal drama “the worst show of the century” (according to our critic) by accident or design? Perhaps we’ll never know.
Read the full review ➤
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The Queen’s English
Every weekday, Orlando Bird, our loyal Reader Correspondent, shares an off-piste topic that has brought out the best of your opinions and stories.
Orlando writes...
Does a British voice – and, in particular, a “posh” one – open doors in other parts of the world? That is Dominic Hilton’s contention. Indeed, he argues that the accent is our greatest export.
I leave it to others to judge the poshness or otherwise of my own voice, but I would say that it is unmistakably British. I haven’t had as much luck as Dominic in the States, though. Of course I tried the whole Hugh Grant routine when I first visited New York, but I found that the no-nonsense residents grew deeply impatient – practically started growling – after a few seconds of flustered bumbling.
For AM Wild, however, the article rang true: “I have travelled quite a bit, and have worked in Switzerland. In my experience, an English accent is well received, and seems to confer (fairly or otherwise) a number of social and business advantages. Like it or not, I did go to public school, so it was fairly inevitable that I would speak with Received Pronunciation.”
Another reader noted: “I have quite a strong northern accent and Americans still think I’m posh.”
Stuart Reed had a different experience: “In the US, they generally think I am Australian. I find that clear speech is much appreciated in Europe, rather than RP, and that Scottish and Irish accents are disliked because they can be harder for non-native speakers to understand.”
I also enjoyed this, from Terry Jackson: “My wife and I were in a queue for a rollercoaster at Disneyland, California, when a young child behind us said to her mother, ‘Gee maarm, these guys got really funny accents’. The mother replied, ‘No, you are the one with the funny accent.’ They were from Louisiana.”
Has your accent helped (or hindered) you abroad? Send your responses here, and the best of the bunch will feature in a future edition of this newsletter.
Please confirm in your reply that you are happy to be featured and that we have your permission to use your name.
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1553 | Lady Jane Grey, who reigned as Queen of England for nine days, is found guilty of high treason and later beheaded
2018 | Trial of Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman begins in New York. He is found guilty and sentenced to life without parole
2020 | Dominic Cummings is sacked by Boris Johnson (see our coverage in the following day’s paper)
Birthdays: Gerard Butler (57), Jimmy Kimmel (59), Whoopi Goldberg (71)
Plus, in the news today, it has been announced that the founding of England 1,100 years ago will be given a “fitting commemoration” next year. Who was the first King of England?
1. Alfred the Great
2. Athelstan
3. Edward the Confessor
4. Cnut
Click one of the options to reveal the answer...
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Find as many words as you can in today’s Panagram, including the nine-letter solution. Visit Telegraph Puzzles to play a range of head-scratching games, including The 1% Club, Cogs, and Quick, Mini or Cryptic Crosswords.
Yesterday’s Panagram was DIGNITARY. Come back tomorrow for the solution to today’s puzzle.
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Thank you for reading. Have a fulfilling day and I hope to see you tomorrow.
Chris Evans, Editor
Please let me know what you think of this newsletter. You can email me your feedback at fromtheeditor@telegraph.co.uk.
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