Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, “The Government ruled an inheritance tax out of scope in the Tax Working Group’s Terms of Reference, but Sir Michael Cullen says a majority of the Group has found a way to include it. Warping a capital gains tax to implement a death tax by stealth would be a betrayal of those terms.”

“Taxpayers were told the role of the Working Group was to modernise the tax system. It’s actual task appears to be preparing the country for an ideological tax grab.”