Nothing is certain but death and taxes. Several famous authors have uttered lines to this effect. The first was Daniel Defoe in The Political History of the Devil in 1726: “Things as certain as death and taxes, can be more firmly believed.” Benjamin Franklin used the form more commonly quoted nowadays in a letter to Jean-Baptiste Leroy in 1789: “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Another thought on the theme comes from Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind: “Death, taxes and childbirth! There’s never any convenient time for any of them.”

Taxes are, of course, an unavoidable burden. But a new survey from chartered accountant MacIntyre Hudson underlines the sheer unpopularity of our current regime.

Inheritance tax (IHT) — initially intended as a tax on the rich — is Britain’s most maligned tax. Some 82 percent of taxpayers see it as the top priority for reform if and when the Chancellor is in a position to cut taxes, and a similar proportion believe it to be an unfair tax on wealth that has often been built up out of post-tax income. People’s other top tax hates are income tax (80 percent of those polled would like to see an increase in the higher-rate starting threshold), stamp duty and council tax (78 percent and 75 percent respectively would like to see these tax burdens reduced).

Disdain for the current tax regime is understandable. A sinister condition has been tightening its grip on the nation’s pocket, “fiscal drag“. Pinning tax allowances and thresholds to purely inflationary increases — so that they do not rise in line with salaries and, especially, house prices — has drawn more and more taxpayers into new and higher tax bands, generating billions of pounds in additional taxation.

A doubling of the inheritance tax threshold, announced in last year’s pre-Budget report and due to come into force in the new tax year, despite grabbing headlines, will not save prudent people a penny. The smoke and mirrors move that will see the threshold at which the tax — charged at a penal 40 percent — is paid to 600,000 pounds from a current 300,000 pounds for married couples and civil partners will, in practice, give most people what they already have. It is already possible, through trust planning, for both parties to use their nil rate band to pass on wealth free of tax without the need to sell the family home, generally people’s biggest asset.

The growing tax take from inheritance tax largely, of course, comes from the boom in house prices, a picture that is changing starkly. House prices fell at their fastest pace in the three months to January in at least a decade, a sign the interest rate cut last year has done little to stabilise the market. Sentiment is also weakening. In the last six months, there has been a dramatic swing in public opinion towards house prices dipping over the next year, according to consumer finance Web site MoneySavingExpert.com. Its latest poll shows that the British public now predicts a 5.5 percent fall in house prices — the gloomiest forecast since the poll began in 2004. Six months ago, consumers predicted a mere 0.6 percent decline.

The prospect of falling house prices will concern many property owners, especially those who have borrowed heavily to buy in at the top of the market. But its materialisation could bring an unexpected bonus to certain groups of people. First-time buyers, of course, would find it easier to get a foot on the housing ladder. More surprisingly, certain beneficiaries could claw back some funds that have flowed into the taxman’s coffers.

If a property is sold at a value lower than the value that was used to calculate an inheritance tax liability, it could be possible for the executor of the estate to reclaim some of the tax paid, says Ronnie Ludwig, a partner at Saffery Champness. A claim must be made within four years of the death of the donor. The sale does not even have to occur on the open market to qualify. If someone owns their own company, it could be possible to sell the property to their company, provided the sale is at an arm’s length value supported by an independent firm of valuers. That will be music to the ears, no doubt, to those caught in the inheritance tax net who are only too aware that nothing is certain but death and taxes.