Legacy giving could be hit by government plans to review the use of deeds of variation to amend wills, the Charity Tax Group has said today.

Deeds of variation are legal vehicles which allow a will to be changed if all beneficiaries agree. In yesterday’s Budget, the government promised a wide-ranging review of the use of deeds of variation for tax purposes.

Helen Donoghue, director of the Charity Tax Group, said that deeds of variation are often used to make a donation to charity, particularly to bring the value of an estate below the inheritance tax threshold, and that the CTG had previously fought to ensure that beneficiaries of wills were allowed to do this in a simple way.

“Plans to abolish deeds of variation were previously brought by government almost twenty years ago and we found that it had the potential to have a significant impact on legacy giving,” Donoghue said. “At the time we had to do a lot of work, along with accountants and lawyers, to ensure that legacies were not negatively affected.

“We’re concerned that this will be a problem for the sector.”

However Andrew Jones, an associate at Hugh James solicitors who specialises in will writing, said his experience was that it was relatively rare for deeds of variation to go to charities.

“I can see how a variation could be hugely tax advantageous if you already wanted to make a donation,” he said. “Otherwise it could be used effectively to take an estate below the inheritance tax level. However these are not common occurrences in my personal experience.”