Do you need your parent/s to die before April 2026? *MNHQ adding content warning mentions suicide*

[Spatulation]

Absolutely reeling that we're losing the farm that my grandfather bought, my father expanded and my son hoped to takeover.

The budget today means that we'll owe £1000000 in tax and we won't be able to get a mortgage as that's 5 times our annual income and over 35000 times bigger than last year's profit.

We own soil. That's it.

Agriculture has the highest suicide rate in any profession - sadly I can see it hitting an all time high in the next 18 months. My father (83) is already talking about it.

and how does allowing farm land to be sold off for housing actually square with any green principles

Farmers sell off land for development at the drop of a hat, where on earth do you think the land has come from for that new housing estate????

Farmers nr me are queuing up to sell packets of land for development & get a lot more than £1m from these sales.

OP, I'm so sorry. The situation is desperate, and so many people really don't have a clue. I hope you and your family find a way through.

To those people berating OP and sneering at her when she's here looking for support for her dad being suicidal: shame on you. Callous and cruel beyond belief.

I was just about to say, surely you would just do this?

Or separate the business off into a few companies?

Or sell like 2 fields to Persimmon?

Otherwise I’m sure you’ll find someone to swap places with you to get £5m after tax from selling a farm.

he doesn't want to break up the farm.

With all due respect I don’t want to do my 9-5 shit job either, but it’s not always about what we want. We’re all making tough decisions so if he has to do something not ideal then that would just be like the rest of us.

So for IHT purposes the property is valued for taxation at the current market value. We all know that this is not necessarily what the property is sold for. You only have to look at rightmove to see properties being reduced in an attempt to sell them, sometimes taking off a large amount of the price.
so if John has to sell his farm which is valued at 6 million to pay death duties, but it sits on the market for 2 years and he gets an offer for 4.5 million the IHT will still be based on the "market value" of 6 million. They can't afford to pay the IHT bill without selling the farm so what do they do ?
lots of farming families will have children living in houses and cottages that are part of the farm so they will not be able to sell their house to pay the IHT on the basis that they can then move into the farmhouse.

@User123456713 many farmers have praised JC for his programme to highlight the issues farmers (who don't have the cash behind them like JC) have. Yes he can try new schemes and afford to lose money other farmers can't.

@HeWhoMustNotBeNamed what happens when any of the shareholders die? What are the tax implications?

We currently only produce 65% of our food in the uk. This policy is going to drive down farming.
Food security is really important given how unstable the world is.
How can the government be so incredibly short sighted

So fucking trite! And ignorant!

Will you then undertake to maintain the land and continue to farm it for food production? Do you know how much it costs to fence just an acre of land? Are you prepared to work before daylight and after the sun sets? Or would you hope to get planning permission and build?

Can't people understand that so many farmers are cash poor? They work their socks off for very little reward. Suicide rates are high.

@Imperrysmum and what do you think will happen to the bits of farm sold off? And the bits sold off when the next generation die? And what about the remaining farm left in OP's family, how sustainable will that be?

Well instead of throwing your toys out of the pram why don’t you correct me and educate us all so we have a better understanding of how it works? That would actually be a helpful reply

Are you stupid, do you not realise the implications for the country as a whole if many farming families are forced to sell their land due to IHT and it be used for other purposes. Rather than be passed down the generations, along with their farming knowledge, for food production.

Someone said on another thread, labour are going for the jugular for minority groups (private schools, farmers, small businesses) because no one gives a shit (i've summarised) but I think they knocked the nail on the head.
No one gives a shit, because massive organisations (supermarkets, Amazon, Starbucks etc) will all find loopholes holes and increase charges. Utilities will also increase charges.
A number of Small businesses, farms and small private schools will probably not survive, so then what will labour do for finding streams of money? Many farms have land which isn't suitable for building on, so it will either lie barren or I suppose be used as a landfill site (although environmentally speaking old quarry sites would be better for such use).
Labours budget hasn't been thought through, borrowing hard then killing off the means of repayment, seems extremely fool hardy, but this is what the last labour government did, Brown sold off all the gold stocks the country held. Labour are all about short term gain, knowing full well it will be another government to be blamed for the ramifications of their ill thought out policies. Still they'll probably make a load more diversity championship jobs which ex private school staff, ex business owners and ex farmers can apply for, so it'll all be fine.
I'm sorry OP, I can't imagine how devastated your family are feeling, coming from ex farming stock myself I completely understand that the land isn't £££££ it's a way of life, that we are just custodians of it, we use it and look after it, to ensure we can put food on the nations table. Already in a global crisis we'd struggle to feed the nation (it's amazing how short lived people's memories are when eggs, flour and other basics were rationed during the early months of covid) I thought self sufficiency for the country would be seen as high priority, seems I'm wrong. Given wars, weather and the very high chances of another global epidemic, I find it unfathomable that the government are intent on making the country so vulnerable, I mean this lot of politicians can't even leg it to the European gravy train when they finish, so they really are shooting themselves in the foot!

Well, maybe you will be upset when the next generation of farmers can not afford to inherit and keep the family farm. You do realise that Tesco don’t actually grow anything, don’t you?

It seems the uk is being run by lunatics who were voted in by even bigger lunatics.

Other purposes, such as what?

People have been trying to educate others on this thread, it appears to be falling on deaf ears.

I feel that this thread has highlighted the state our education system is in as it appears to have raised a generation unable to apply critical thinking skills or even sometimes read the most basic of information.

With all due respect I don’t want to do my 9-5 shit job either, but it’s not always about what we want

Do you want fresh food that hasn't been flown in from the other end of the globe?

I'm just so sad at this thread. It demonstrates such ignorance about where our food comes from in the UK and the real cost to the farmers involved. People demanding to be 'educated' could just stir themselves to hit a few keys and read up on this themselves.
The result of this budget will be less land being farmed to produce food in the UK. Sadly there will be more suicides. Oh, and prices will go up a bit more.

Given that farmers are predominantly male, rural, Tory voting, and older than 50 (one third are over 65), they appear to have voted to leave in a smaller proportion than others in their demographic.

www.westcountryvoices.com/challenging-the-myth-that-farmers-voted-for-brexit-and-therefore-deserve-whats-coming-to-them/

Oh get off your high horse. I’m perfectly well educated thank you, sorry I don’t know the ins and out of farming. Why don’t YOU educate us all instead of leaving catty replies

Why don't you read the thread and educate yourself.

Totally agree. Ignorant beyond belief.

All you need to do is read the thread. And as for being well educated all I can say is quod erat demonstrandum.
I'm not a farmer, however it doesn't take much knowledge of current affairs to be aware of these issues.

Have you read the thread? Building for a start. In other words, no longer used for food production.

Many farms leave the land to the farmer, with some but minimal inheritance money, left to off farm siblings.This is usually all that the farm can afford..
Each generation often adds to the land with additional land purchases, if the farm can generate enough profit to afford that. The farm needs to remain a viable business.
Farming families recognise that and understand that farmers don't intend to cash out on the land and sell for megabucks to housing developers. Many farms are small businesses with one or two employees at seasonal times; and are not big enough to have share holders

All farms are run on expensive land.
It is not the farming land's fault that it is value d as high as real esate for housing. In reality farming is often not profitable enought to repurchase the land every fifty years.

We don't want our food imported from Asia with poorer water and chemical quality standards and travelling thousands of miles to reach our stomachs.