Elderly sisters lose last ditch legal bid to have death tax parity with gays

Joyce and Sybil Burden, who have lived together all their lives, are angry that one of them will face an inheritance tax bill of more than £50,000 when the other dies.

They are even more enraged by the fact that same-sex couples can now avoid that tax by entering into a civil partnership, but that no such exemption is available to them.

European judges have dismissed their claim, saying their relationship was "fundamentally different" to that of married or civil partnership couples.

The decision means that to meet the tax bill when the other dies, the surviving sister will have to sell the four-bedroom house in Marlborough, Wiltshire, they have lived in for more than 40 years.

In a statement after the judgment, Joyce, 90, and Sybil, 82, said: "We are bitterly disappointed. This is a day we hoped, as British citizens, we would never see.

"Having always paid our taxes, and having cared for our relatives and each other when necessary without any help from the state, we are now in the worrying and unsettling position of being unable to secure each other in our last few years.

"Our brothers fought in the Second World War and our sister was a nurse throughout the Blitz.

"We do not believe that this is the sort of freedom and democracy that they envisaged when they put their lives on the line for their country.

"We are struggling to understand why two single sisters in their old age, whose only crime was to stay single and look after their parents and aunts, should find themselves in such a position in the UK in the 21st century."

The Burdens have been battling on the inheritance tax issue since 1976.

They took their case to the European Court of Human Rights after British law extended the exemption to same- sex couples through civil partnerships in 2005.

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The women now have no further legal avenues to follow in the wake of the decision by the Grand Chamber, the appeal court of the European Court of Human Rights.

The judges decided by 15 to two to endorse a four to three verdict against them by seven Strasbourg judges in an initial ruling in 2006.

The women's lawyers said their only remaining hope was lobbying Parliament in a bid to have the law changed.

After their first defeat two years ago Joyce Burden said: "If we were lesbians we would have all the rights in the world. But we are sisters, and it seems we have no rights at all."

Inheritance tax is charged at 40 per cent on the value of any inherited property above £312,000.

Matthew Elliott of the Taxpayers' Alliance said: "This is a sad verdict for anyone who wanted to do the right thing and save for their family's future.

"Inheritance tax is an unjust and unfair levy that hits bereaved families when they are at their most vulnerable.

"Whilst these brave sisters have lost this battle, the strength of public opposition to inheritance tax is growing all the time and we are getting closer to winning the war to abolish it."