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.

I don’t have much at all, I am choosing between heating and eating at times, but I have empathy for your situation. We need farmers. I would hope that a working farm would be exempt from massive tax when continuing to be a family farm for x number of years into the future so you can stay to work the land in the family. Even a deferred tax until the land leaves the family would be beneficial to the tax payer long term.

It’s all in the land ffs, every generation a massive chunk will have to be sold off to fund the inheritance tax bill til there’s literally nothing left.
Who is actually going to feed our nation once you’ve totally destroyed farming. Put your envy back in its box and actually try to understand the situation 😡

There are a lot of people on this thread who don’t understand what farming represents. This isn’t a 9-5 job. Where you can sell your house, move to something smaller and carry on with your life and work after paying £1million in tax. Farming is a way of life. Being a farmer isn’t something you clock out of.
People see big numbers and want to see these people taken down a peg or 2.

They don’t see or can’t imagine what this means for them. If people think todays food prices are high, what is to come as these larger farms get broken up and less and less food is produced at home and we have to import food to feed the country, food prices are going to go through the roof

It isn’t as simple as someone with a bit of money buying a large farm from a family who have run the farm for several decades and expecting to carry on the work

The work, organisation, staff wages and everything else that needs to be spent when put against profits makes most farms an unattractive business model.

With every large farm that is lost, the higher the food cost in the supermarket

People will go more hungry without UK farmers. Food prices will go up. So the poorest, for example those on UC, will be badly affected by this.

I'm a "townie" but understand the importance of food security. It affects all of us in the UK.

It's not wealth when it's a working farm. It's not cash. It's money tied up in the farm - which is providing food for the country.

Hopefully the government will think through the plan and change it so the IHT only applies to non-working farms (wanting to close that loophole is understandable and a good idea, but working farms need to be exempt).

@Meganssweatycrotch there could be CGT consequences if the farm is ever sold if gifted. And what does the original farmer do for income and where do they live? The money in a farm is mainly in the assets, so if they pass that on, what do they do?

Oh sorry, I assumed the tax was increased rather than actually implemented for the first time today, I've just had a quick read up.

I'm sorry OP, it does seem this is going to be a massive problem in the farming community, where it is notoriously asset rich and cash poor, but it may serve to bring about change in handing over ownerships of family farms early, to try and mitigate the liability.

The only problem with that is, is whether the next generation are willing to take up the mantle, or would they decide to sell up and repurpose the money anyway?

Would ownership be coming to you with a view to your son running it, or would it go directly to your son? or have you not really thought that far ahead until today?

For the first time ever I'm with Jeremy Clarkson. OP, your father won't be alone, and the NFU has a very strong voice. I have lived all my life in a landscape of small and medium family farms and I know their value in the community and to the environment. Tell your father to concentrate on living, not dying. Labour have always been abysmal when it comes to the countryside, but they won't be able to push this through as it stands.

I'm so sorry OP there are some horrible comments on this thread.

Farms being cut up into smaller & smaller pieces over the generations is bad for everyone.
The utter arrogance & idiocy of throwing away what little food security we still have is terrifying.

The utter ignorance on this thread is staggering!!! This budget will quite literally destroy small - medium family farms. It will destroy British agriculture - or what's left of it.

ALL OF YOU reading this are reliant on farmers every single day! They quite literally feed. ALL OF YOU!!! Farming rarely pays much if anything. Certainly the vast majority of family members working in the farm will take an hourly wage much much lower than minimum wage.

Already 3 farmers have killed themselves in the past week in anticipation of this budget.

Farms are asset rich but cash poor. Most barely break even. Without subsidies most would not survive. Farmers don't get to set the prices they sell their produce for.
This is done to keep to keep the food on YOUR TABLE cheaper. If farmers were paid a decent amount for what they produce IT WOULD COST YOU A LOT MORE!

Yes farmers could sell and have cash in the bank.

And then what?
Who is going to feed you?

We are all literally Fed by farmers every day!

I’m sorry op.

This government has hit minorities who are perceived by the general public to be “rich”. Therefore you get the responses above, along the lines of “tiny violins”. There’s another thread running from a GP who is in the position of the NI/NMW changes pushing her practice to closure. It was the same when they came for VAT on private education. All perceived “rich” and therefore response = nobody cares. Terrifying that posters are not interested in understanding these issues.

This

Horrible thread title

This.

People who live in poverty often die 20-30 years younger than 83. Its an absolute privilege to get to that age as a millionaire. Tone deaf.

Devastating, farmers are giving up yearly and we so need them. We import far to much as it is needlessly. It’s just awful. Soon we will produce nothing……is that really the way the gov want to go??

Maybe some people need to read up on how their food is produced in this country and not show their ignorance on this thread. What do you think will happen if the farming industry becomes even more decimated than it is now? The wealth in farms is in their assets. If part of a farm has to be sold off, what do you think will happen to that land? If it is in area ripe for development not sure it would be sold onto another farmer. Also why would another farm buy it when they will be looking at how to increase their cash when it comes to them having to pay IHT.

We might be fed by farmers every day, but not necessarily by independent family farms. Much farmland in the UK is in the hands of large agricultural firms.

I'm guessing that Labour wants to force independent farms to sell up, which will probably mean a sizeable amount of land being bought by developers. I suppose Labour wants more land in order to house the five Birminghams' worth of immigrants we expect in the next few years, and while they get more land for houses, they get a tax windfall too.

I'm guessing.

And remember there will be employed workers on these farms, other industries/businesses reliant on these farms. Farms stop farming these people will also be hit, so more people will lose jobs.

Exactly. Labour wants land for houses, and targeting independent family farms (as opposed to land which is in the hands of large farming conglomerates) is how they're doing it.

A lot of Labour Party policies are based on what they think will be a popular policy among those people who don’t understand consequences to actions. They themselves don’t seem to see the problems their policies will bring
It comes as this huge shock when it all starts to unravel and 1/2 the country are shouting

“I told you so”

It's not all farms, it's independent family farms. (As opposed to land farmed by large agricultural companies, or land directly leased from the Ministry of Agriculture.) Or the National Trust and NT Scotland, who are Britain's largest farmers, and the aristocracy, who own about 30 percent of Britain's land.

The next election will be far too late. This is devastating for the UK

I don't disagree to an extent. I'm born and raised in a rural area, I understand the issues. However I have enough awareness to know that there are far more vulnerable groups and the title was wholly inappropriate.

If your father hands over the farm ownership now, he just needs to live 7 years. The changes may encourage farmers to retire and pass farms on to the next generation.

The tax payable is discounted by 50% on what the rest of us pay anyway. As difficult as it could be for domestic individuals, a £6m inheritance is a huge amount, most of us are being taxed at just £500k + which split 4 ways isn't a big inheritance

People will be in more poverty if food prices go up. Which is what will happen if farms have to be sold.

I don't understand why people don't realise, even if they don't care about a very distraught elderly man, that this will affect everyone. And in particular the poorest.

It's awful that anyone is in poverty. And that needs to be addressed.

It's equally awful that an 83 year old man is feeling so distressed he's suicidal. NB. Asset rich isn't the same as cash rich. And in the case of farming, it's an asset tied up in a vital service for the country - producing our food.

Hopefully the government will rethink the plan and exempt working farms. That would tackle the non working farm IHT avoiders whilst protecting working farms and UK food security.

A bit like the tories did for so many years to.the poorest and most vulnerable.

The politics of envy is just getting worse and worse.

Im really sorry OP. Hopefully it will be overturned.

I think it’s a pretty sure bet labour won’t last longer than this term so tell your DF to hang in there.