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This guidance note discusses the concept of excepted assets and details when a restriction in the value of BPR available may be appropriate. It considers the tests applied to the assets ― the past use and future use test and the exceptions to this rule for assets held personally and used by a company or partnership and assets held by a qualifying interest in possession (QIIP) used in the business of the life tenant. It considers the rules surrounding surplus cash in detail. It notes how private use assets are excluded from relief and how land or buildings which are used partly for business purposes may be apportioned. The excepted assets rules are much less onerous than is generally understood and tend to bite only on private assets and excess cash balances. This is because the assets must be used in the business to qualify for relief; there is no requirement that the business the asset is used in is a trading business.