To wonder why agricultural land is worth so much?

On the borrowing part, which they will loose indeed if the land value goes down, should not they borrow on the produce to be sold, rather than the land?
Otherwise, you are really constantly mortgaging your existance = our food supply.
We would be better subsidising. Though, in the long term, I am hoping for financialy sustainable sectors, without having to depend on subsidies or benefits to get by.

They work two jobs, have a business on the side, lorry driving, accountancy, hairdressing, you name it a farmer somewhere does it, or a partner works off farm and has a higher salary or you both work two jobs.

I've worked for plenty of farmers who work two jobs utside of peak season when you could be working 130 hours a week. 60-70 is the norm but many of us have had a side hussle to cover for the fact it is a low paid occupation.

I think Dyson gets a bad rap actually. He does "farm". He also uses the farm to innovate farming techniques, which benefits all farms. He runs a carbon neutral farm for example. Not saying he doesn't also benefit from tax reliefs, but he isn't just sitting on land.

And that's why we run into problems because no one even those with better brains than you and I can come up with a workable solution.

I believe the threshold for IHT to start is 3 million pounds. So small dwellings are unaffected.
People like Clarkson would be affected.
The question is whether farms that happen to be over the 3 million pounds in land value are productive enough to pay said tax or the prices on them are inflated. If inflated, will these policy help to bring the land prices in line with their productivity as farms?

And, actually, that Clarkson is heading this movement inclines me to think the policy is right. Just because Clarkson is a proper clown.

No because to get by a lot of land is borrowed against. Lower the land prices too quickly and that borrowing becomes a very high risk and economically disasterous for the farmer. These people unless they are in dairy farming often only get paid once or twice a year so borrowing becomes the norm.

Also your benefactors cannot benefit from the land in any way once gifted. So they would have to pay full local rates rent for housing on that land or buy a home. Rents and house prices in the same areas where farms are over valued, are also over valued.

Sorry , i mean it will effect the non farmers who have the land too but the people aka the actual farmers who I think personally should have to pay it will be punished aswell. Should have said as well instead of instead ( grammar!)

It's not, planning laws are very strict. If you have site that might get planning, that's a potential fortune but they're few and very far between. Most is greenbelt and IME worth very little, but it varies according to quality of land etc

maybe however because the new law doesn’t distinguish between real farmer and non farmer. What I think you will get is if the landlord is going to have to pay a load in inheritance tax maybe they might pass a lot of the cost into the tenant farmer or worse sell the land so the tenant farmer can’t even farm. Not sure! But for farmers that own the land they are completely screwed.

You say “instead”, implying the non-farmers are not going to be affected? Can you explain why?

Farms are more than just land. Buildings, animals, and equipment. A combine harvester £500k, tractors £100k. Trailers, ploughs, GPS systems for ploughing, seed planting machines. I think one problem we have is that Pre Covid, Farms became reliant on a cheap supply of labour from across the world, so why spend £1,000s on updating your equipment when you have an unlimited supply of cheap labour? The problem now, is why spend that money on equipment, if when you die the government tax your children on its value? We need our farms to be efficient and modern, and the IHT policy will not encourage that

And rake in a lot through farming subsidies.

If your not a farmer and have a lot of money you want to pass down without being for charged inheritance tax you can tie it up in land claim it’s farming land and not having to pay. Many people and businesses have cottoned on to this in the past ten years and drove land prices up and bus the government is trying to stop this loop hole but instead it’s punishing the wrong people- actual farmers !

@MrsBennetsPoorNerves for starting this thread, I have missed the other discussions and it's an area where I'd like to understand better as well.

Looking to the future, I'm also wondering whether farming families will be able to make use of exemptions for gifting property within the family, providing the giver survives for 7 years after the gift. This obviously isn't going to be helpful for those families where the tax bill is triggered in the next few years, but surely this is a good long term solution?

@DanielaDressen if your DH had sold the fields when he inherited, he hopefully would have got their full value, say £100,000. Whereas if he’d inherited anything else worth £100,000, IHT would have reduced it to £60,000.

Depends on a huge variety of factors, what is farming, is equestrianism farming because some think it is? Do the rates help rural businesses that serve agriculture like haulage and feed stores which also grow a portion of their own crops too? Some of these businesses will have other customers so do they have a sliding scale dependant on the amount of farming business they have? How about the farms that offer holiday homes, camping, off roading etc for part of the year on a portion of their land?

What accounts for agricultural production? Farms that crop or would it include farms that specialise in livestock or plant breeding that ultimately create little to no food crop but do serve the industry in terms of supplying farmers with a new variety of wheat or apples or bloodlines? Lowland livestock farms that buy in animals born on hills but help them to gain weight before they are passed on to finishing farms?

Does it apply to land owned by food processors who take in lots of agricultural produce and convert it into dairy, chutney, airline meals.

What about farms that only produce animal feeds or oils for bio fuels?

Would woodlands come under agricultural use or only if they produced edible mushrooms or foraged fruits? Coppice or timber?

What about factory farms and super farms both are ndesirable in the business but exist, should they and their billions be exempt entirely?

Not so simple a task when you delve in deeper into land use in this country.

I don't have the answer to it and I don't feel stupid about that because no one else has a decent solution either.

…it’s a tax dodge .. and the rich folks that the tax dodge benefits have whipped others up (I think it’s more about being annoyed at the election result). Odd really, as it’s the same people who supported Brexit, which has cost the farming industry hundred of million, and is far more damaging than any IHT changes (which won’t effect a large % of farms)