Reader, I married him, but Osborne clobbered me for £600,000

But how would these much-loved literary characters cope under George Osborne’s tax regime? Inheritance tax (IHT) is one of the most hated taxes in Britain. The threshold above which 40% IHT kicks in has been frozen at £325,000 since 2009. It is a lucrative revenue stream for the government: in the first three months of this year, the Treasury received £1.1bn from IHT receipts, according to official figures, up from £685m in the same period five years ago.

With the 200th anniversary this year of Charlotte Brontë’s birth, Money takes a look at how some of our favourite literary characters would fare under the 2016 tax regime. (For those of you who haven’t yet read the originals, it comes with a spoiler alert: key plot details are revealed.)

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Jane Eyre is an orphan who gets a job as a governess and falls in love with her employer, Mr Rochester. She later discovers she has inherited £20,000 from her uncle and gifts £15,000 of that to her cousins, the Rivers. Jane eventually marries Mr Rochester, prompting the famous line : “Reader, I married him.”

Jane’s inheritance would be worth £1,871,560 today, according to the Bank of England’s inflation calculator. Assuming this was the total value of Uncle John’s estate, £618,624 would be creamed off by the taxman, meaning she would walk away with £1,252,936. To work out the IHT bill, the threshold of £325,000 is subtracted from the estate, and 40% tax is applied to the remainder.

IHT must be paid by the end of the sixth month after the person died. For example, if Uncle John died in January, Jane would have to pay by July 31.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
In Pride and Prejudice, published in 1813, Mr Bennet has an income of £2,000 a year and owns the Longbourn estate. He has five daughters — Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty and Lydia — whose marital prospects obsess his wife.

In the absence of a male descendant, Mr Bennet declares his distant cousin, Mr Collins, the heir to Longbourn, meaning that when he dies, his wife and children will have no legal right to remain there.

Even though Mr Bennet plans to leave £5,000 in “marriage articles” to his wife, she is aware this money will not be enough to support the family long term — and so begins her determination to marry off their daughters to ensure they do not fall into financial destitution.

Austen’s novel begins: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.”

Under today’s rules, Mr Bennet could have left everything to his wife in his will. She would not pay a penny in tax under the spouse exemption, which allows married couples and civil partners to leave everything to each other and not incur IHT. However, if the estate was left to the daughters on Mrs Bennet’s death, the 40% tax would apply.

Let’s say the property is valued at £1m now. The £5,000 would be worth £312,883 in today’s money, so the total estate would be £1,312,883. Mrs Bennet would inherit her husband’s £325,000 threshold, giving her an IHT-free allowance of £650,000. Once that was applied to the estate, it would trigger a tax bill of £265,153 — or £53,031 per daughter.

Alex Whitson of vouchedfor.co.uk, which lists financial advisers, said: “As the family’s wealth is likely to be tied up in the estate with little by way of liquid assets, this could mean they would be forced to sell their family home to raise the cash to pay the IHT bill.”

Alternatively, an IHT bill can be paid over 10 years, provided the property remains unsold, but it will incur interest, currently charged at 3%.

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Pip, an orphan, receives a surprise income of £500 a year when he turns 21. He thinks it is from Miss Havisham, a wealthy and eccentric dowager whose house he used to visit regularly, but it is actually from Magwitch, an escaped convict Pip helped as a boy.

The novel was published in 1861, although it was set slightly earlier. Let’s say Pip received his first £500 payment in 1830. Today that would be £52,000.

If a gift is made at least seven years before death, there is no IHT to pay. A sliding scale of tax applies for deaths that occur three to seven years after the money is given. For example, if the person dies 4½ years later, 24% IHT is due.

Ben Yearsley of the investment service Wealth Club points out that there is also an “annual exemption” on gifts — individuals can give away £3,000 a year and this will not be liable for IHT, no matter when they die.

Let’s says Magwitch made three £500 payments and, unfortunately, they were all within three years of his death. Today this would amount to about £156,000. After the deduction of the annual exemption — a total of £9,000 over three years — £147,000 would be added to Magwitch’s estate on his death.

If the estate was worth more than £325,000, the excess would be hit with the full 40% tax. The executor might therefore have to pay £58,800 IHT on the generous gifts made to Pip.

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
This was the first of Austen’s novels to be published, appearing in 1811. Inheritance is at the heart of the story: Henry Dashwood dies and leaves his home to his first wife’s son and only male heir, John, who is supposed to support Henry’s second wife and their three daughters.

However, John forces them to leave the Norland estate and Mrs Dashwood and her daughters must survive on an annual income of £500, plus £7,000 from her late husband.

The £500 would be worth £36,429 now, and with three daughters at home and a position in society to keep up, the money would not go far. The £7,000 would be worth £510,000 today .

Under the current inheritance rules, Henry could have divided the Norland estate equally between his four children. They would pay 40% IHT on any excess above £325,000.

However, next April, the limit will rise to £425,000 for those leaving their family home to their children or grandchildren. In April 2020, it will increase again to £500,000, meaning parents can leave a family home worth £1m tax-free.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by JK Rowling
In Rowling’s first book about the boy wizard, Harry inherits stacks of “galleons” (wizarding coins) from his dead parents, which are kept secure in the family vault at Gringotts bank. Later in the series, he becomes the heir to the estate of his godfather, Sirius Black.

Harry Potter would face enormous tax bills

Let’s imagine the coins he inherits are valued at £2m now, and Black’s estate is worth £1m. Harry’s parents, Lily and James, were murdered by Voldemort . If parents die at the same time, their £325,000 IHT thresholds are both unused and therefore transferred to their beneficiary — in this case, Harry. So £650,000 would be deducted from the £2m Potter fortune, leaving £1,350,000 subject to IHT. Harry must pay a tax bill of £540,000.

Kevin Ferriby of Informed Financial Planning said: “Sirius wasn’t married, so only £325,000 of the £1m estate would be tax-free and the rest taxed at 40% [a bill of £270,000]. This means the combined Potter and Black estates would suffer a tax bill of £810,000, leaving Harry with an inheritance of £2,190,000.”

It is, however, not known what the IHT rules are in the wizarding world, as Money is staffed only by Muggles.