The Chancellor is the pole around which disaffection organises itself

We'll hand over around £12.6bn unnecessarily to the tax authorities this year, writes Simon Read.

A campaign for people to leave 10 per cent of their estate to charities and cultural organisations on their death claimed the backing of all three political parties yesterday.

The idea that we need incentives to make us less selfish sounds like an oxymoron. But that is the sense at the heart of the new Legacy 10 scheme, which encourages people to make the most of the inheritance tax breaks in the last Budget.

Chancellor George Osborne will be the keynote speaker at the launch this week of a new campaign, Legacy10, to encourage individuals to leave more of their wealth for charitable and cultural causes.

So Michael Winner has finally set a wedding date. But why wait so long? I imagine the main reason is financial. He isn't going to live for ever, and he must be particularly aware of his mortality after a dreadful health scare four years ago, which he suffered after eating a dodgy oyster in Barbados.

How to make a claim if an eBay purchase goes sour ... And what happens when someone dies intestate?

HM Revenue & Customs launched 9,368 investigations into inheritance tax valuations last year and is targeting estates and beneficiaries, warns UHY Hacker Young, the national accountancy firm.

Comment

Inside Westminster

Is the Deputy Prime Minister's current status as the most hated man in Britain justified? Matt Chorley thinks the country a better place for his efforts, while John Rentoul says he has little to show for the compromises coalition politics have required

Changes to the inheritance tax rules aimed at raising an extra £300m a year for charities announced in Wednesday's Budget, may not achieve the desired effect, a tax expert has warned.

Charities are to receive a £540m boost in a move by George Osborne to give fresh impetus to David Cameron's vision of creating a "big society".