Inheritance tax receipts hit £4.6bn from April to October, new government figures published this morning have revealed.

The figure is £0.5bn more than the same period last year.

That suggests another record-breaking IHT year, the tax having already delivered the Treasury £158m every week in revenue so far this financial year.

Stephen Lowe, group communications director at retirement specialist Just Group, predicted that at the current rate of tax collection, IHT will raise more than £7.8bn for the Treasury.

This would far surpass the OBR’s estimate for this year of £7.2bn as well as last year’s all-time high of £7.1bn.

Despite the increase, the chances of the Chancellor making rumoured changes to the IHT regime in tomorrow’s Autumn Statement have receded, after he came in for widescale criticism when floating the idea recently.

Rosie Hooper, Chartered Financial Planner at Quilter, said: “The increasing revenue from inheritance tax has caused a conundrum for the government given how emotive the tax can be and its power to split voters. Though a steadily increasing number of families are paying inheritance tax since the Chancellor extended the IHT threshold freeze until April 2028, it still impacts relatively few people and reports that he was considering a cut to the headline rate came under heavy fire as a result.”

Laura Hayward, tax partner at Evelyn Partners, said: “If the latest reports are to be believed, cuts to IHT are likely to take a backseat to other possible tax changes in tomorrow’s Autumn Statement. However, with Jeremy Hunt noting that ‘everything is on the table in an Autumn Statement’ it’s not impossible that we could still see changes of sorts to the IHT charging regime announced tomorrow.”

There has been some speculation that there could be a cut to the rate charged, which is currently levied at 40% on estates above the value of £325,000. Some have also suggested that the main nil-rate band (£325,000) could be combined with the residential nil-rate band allowance (currently £175,000) to give a total IHT-free allowance of £500,000.

But Julia Peake, tax and estate planning specialist at Canada Life, said: “We may see changes to IHT pushed down the road to the Spring Budget next year.”

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is still expected to make some major tax cuts tomorrow in his Autumn Statement. This morning he said: “At my Autumn Statement tomorrow, I will focus on how we boost business investment and get people back into work to deliver the growth our country needs.”

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak used a speech on Monday to promise tax cuts and pledged to “reward hard work” in what appeared to be a clear signal of intent ahead of the statement.

That suggests that rather than tinkering with IHT, the government now looks more likely to make changes to National Insurance and businesses taxes.

• Financial Planning Today will be covering the Autumn Statement in detail tomorrow. Check back with us for extensive coverage. The Chancellor is expected to deliver his Autumn Statement to the House of Commons from around 12.30pm tomorrow (Weds 22 Nov).