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.

Sorry - havnt seen your response… are you or anyone you know going to buy a farm?

we have a generation who want flexible working - don’t think they are going to go for the most inflexible work out there!

Did you read any of the rest of the thread? 🤦‍♀️

Lol
Have you learnt something in the last 14 years? That governments don’t always do what’s the most appropriate/logical/suitable?

The problem with farms and farmers is that you can’t compare theur value in the same way you would if it was a house or another business. As explained many times on this thread, farmers are not rich, in that most/a lot of them dint have cash. And certainly not in millions.
And the impact of farming on the country is oretty different than the impact of let’s say tourism, leisure etc…- which has been protected by the new Budget btw.

what an ignorant attitude towards farming

It's hardly the end of their world if they have to sell it
There's people using food banks ..

Goodness, I wonder if there's any connection between farms that produce food, and food banks.

@Daisymay6 could you point us towards the stat that shows only 25% of farms will affected?

Because my PIL had a farm worth the £1million limit.
They were poor (as in the life they had was one of a poor person). They couldn’t survive wo having another job on the side. If we are really honest, the farm was just too small to make a living out of it.

So I’m struggling to see where that figure is coming from….

Everyone saying just sell the farm.

We're not talking about a house here.
We're talking about a business that has been built, probably over generations, with hard work.
Early hours, late nights - probably very little time away.

Having to sell a farm you were going to take over and run, that you've probably been taught to run since before you could walk, is awful.

There will be no generational farms left.

But anything under a million is tax free, plus the £325k tax free that we all get (doubled if spouse’s allowance included) plus the extra allowance if the farmhouse is included in the estate. So potentially still £2 million tax free, plus anything over that is only taxed at 20%. It’s likely farmers will find ways to reduce that further eg by gifting assets to their kids or finding other financial workarounds.

The farmers I know definitely don’t have assets worth over £2 million so won’t be affected. To be liable for a £1M tax bill suggests a farm worth £7M!

Sadly I think you think too highly of your fellow citizens. Just read this thread! The envy of those who can literally only see the £££s and have no concept of the true economics of feeding us.

They are quite literally biting the hand that feeds them! And most don't have the intellect to understand that!

It would it seem be too high for Labour also, they have a large enough majority to do this regardless of the harm

I wouldn't count on it! 1million doesn't get you very far farming wise these days. Nor does 2 million.
Machinery and livestock values all count too and any grain in the sheds.

Yes
But at any point they could choose to sell ,and have millions in their bank account..or rather the op could choose to sell ,and have millions in their bank account.
I totally appreciate her dad and relatives have worked hard on the farm .
And I feel sympathy that his mental health is suffering because of this decision.
But the op can sell ,pay the inheritance tax and still be left with 5 million.
There are people in much much worse situations, families in bed and breakfast because there's no housing .
I just can't feel sorry for someone who can sell a business pay the necessary and still have 5 million.

The past governments sold of the manufacturing plants ,sold of council houses
The country has gone to the dogs ,this is scraping the barrel of trying to dig the country out of a hole ..
And I have read a fair bit of the thread ,and I can see how it may effect production of food..but sadly most things seem to be imported now ,..food is at 45% imported..so that's probably going to get higher ..
Money has to come from somewhere..no one is going to agree with everything any government does ...I'm just glad I didn't vote for the current one

But if they sell it, we lose our farms and food.

Oh. My. God. Are you that naive that you can just sell and have millions in the bank?? Seriously??

they will have considerable loans to cover the cost of equipment, buildings ect. These people are not rich!

they can sell it to Daisymay! 😂

Plenty of less wealthy farms not effected.
Possibility supermarkets will buy some farms ,they already dictate the price farmers get for milk ,and veg ..huge piles of parsnips left to rot because Morrisons didn't like the shape of them .
It is shit , supermarkets shouldn't have such a hold on prices .
That in itself needs sorting out .but nothing gets done .

The first few months of Labour in power, no let’s see what they’ve done? Released criminals from prison, imprisoned people for posts on social media, frightened off anyone thinking of protesting against issues that are affecting them. Set up taxation measures which will create a need for the producers of food to quickly get rid of their farms leaving the gates wide open for the government to take over food production. Making small and medium business ownership so unattractive/unaffordable that no one will want to do it. Making private schooling unaffordable for all but the very wealthy making sure nearly everyone is trapped in the state education system. Eroding any pay gap. Mmm where does this remind me of? Don’t think it went well if I recall! With the internet it’s very easy to change what the barn wall says. Sometimes it’s not the Mandela effect, just the whitewashing over what did actually happen.

@Xenia had a very good point. A lot of older farmers have been encouraged to hang onto their farms instead of gifting it to the next generation. This means they have retained ultimate control which although the next gen might have the day to day running of the farm it has scuppered moving forwards. I’m not sure there are many other industries where 80+ year olds have the driving and final say on such a wide scale.

The other thing I’ve been mulling over on this thread is the state a lot of farmers are in right now before the budget hit. They’ve just come out of harvest where 80 hour weeks would be normal. They’d often have finished drilling by now but the wet autumn has made for a long and difficult season. Many have not got their crops in the ground for next year. What they have planted they will not be making much money on based on the wheat price. They’re exhausted. The feel attacked by the public e.g we have just spent an hour doing social media checks on a new started due to the risk of activists trying to infiltrate the business. Rural crime is at a high - our sheds have been broken into 3 times in the last 6 months. Then, in the budget we will have to find more money to pay staff, the IHT thing and I’ve heard buried deep the government is speeding up the loss of subsidies.

None of those things on their own is bad, wrong or insurmountable. But the pressure being piled on farmers these days is immense. On the GP thread people were horrified a GP should be a business manager as well as a GP. Farming is the same. You have to be a damn good farmer, a marketing person, a land agent, a payroll assistant, an admin assistant, have a working knowledge of VAT and general tax, a health and safety manager, recruitment officer, HR person etc etc etc. and that’s on top of a very very long working week with maybe two weeks off a year if you’re in the sweet spot of your parents or kids being young or old enough to look after the farm.

In this world of flexible working from home farmers are on a different planet to many other industries. Doesn’t make it right, just means they are often in a place of immense pressure.

I have to say that I would feel somewhat more positive about the overall impact of this farming IHT situation, if only the posters on this thread supporting it were less, um, incoherent and stubbornly wilfully boneheaded in their justification of why it's going to be great.

But it's not me ,who has come up with this policy..I don't have anything to do with it ..
I can't change it ..I'm just giving an opinion,which we are all entitled to do

An opinion based on what though? On what the government tells you? A hatred of those you perceive(incorrectly) as well off? What have you based your opinion on?

It already was only the very wealthy who could afford private school .
What planet are you on to think any differently

I know various people who are living in renovated or rebuilt property that formerly was a farmhouse or used for agricultural purposes, or with an old barn/ paddock etc attached. Or who are retired and keep some animals on land near their house.

I have no idea whether these desirable, rural properties would be classed as "agricultural" for IHT purposes or not. But these aren't people getting up at 5am to milk cows and lamb ewes and put food on the table for the nation.

Anyone know whether this is a factor- are these country-house-with- a-few-chickens people the ones really being targeted, do you think?

I'm so sorry about your situation, @indignantpigmy.
Our village apparently had dozens of small dairy farms dotted around it in the 1960s; now there are just two left. One well-known individual (!) has been buying up swathes of land for miles around for years - presumably due to IHT 'planning'.
I've read numerous threads on MN about issues caused by elderly farmers refusing to retire and pass control onto the next generation. If this measure encourages more to do so, it could turn out to be a good thing for many families.

@Spatulation thank you SO much for starting this thread. I hope some of the utter ignoramuses on here have left slightly more educated on the real world than before they opened your post and proceeded to speak absolute ignorant tripe.

I'm not in your position at all (not farm tenants nor owners) but we have friends that are farmers. I shouldn't have to add that we are working class low earners too but will to avoid any conclusions being jumped to.

Both our children are in the YFC and despite being only teens and not being directly affected by any policies affecting farming, they understand it and fucking well get that what affects farming, affects the bloody lot of us. The fact that my 16 year old daughter studying economics at sixth form has more understanding than some the posters on here is alarming.

I am ashamed of the some of responses on here. They almost deserve to suffer the repercussions of the collapse of the farming industry. Those that come up with these policies are the most ignorant and detached from what is the backbone of humanity.

Anyone would think Labour actually want to see the end of the UK being able to sustain itself. God help us.