House Clearance Birkenhead gives the following example, Mr Smith owns a pair of vases. As a pair they are worth £1million, but a single vase is worth only £400,000. Mr Smith gives one of the vases to his son. The gift, for the purposes of inheritance tax, is not simply the £400,000 vase. Before the gift, Mr Smith’s estate included the pair of vases worth £1million. Afterwards he owned one vase worth £400,000. The value of the gift for inheritance tax is £600,000 (£1million less £400,000). This shows the ‘loss to Mr Smith’s estate’.