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 knew this government would be bad, but didn’t realise just how bad they would be. It makes me think come back Blair, all is forgiven, and I loathe Blair.

@Willyoujustbequiet the poorest and most vulnerable are reliant on food produced by farms. If food costs go up because of this policy who is going to be be hit hardest?

I grew up in a rural area though not a farmer. I completely understand why you are in a state op. All people see is huge amounts of money, so they feel envious. People with little sympathy will not feel so gleeful when food prices go up even more. Rare breeds could die out, less organic produce probably. The UK has had to import food for many years. If the food the nation produces is at risk it’s very precarious especially in any conflict situation.

This thread is a perfect illustration of the appalling state of education in the UK 😥

I’m so so sorry, OP. I know how distressing it will be for your father and for those around him. The sheer ignorance of the general public, as illustrated on this thread, tells us just how detached Joe Public now is from the land which feeds him. Farming is asset rich and cash poor. No where close to enough cash is generated by farm businesses to pay 20% of their value to the tax man every generation. If this decision isn’t reversed, it will be the end for family farms. Then what for food security? It’s hugely dangerous for an island nation to lose the ability to feed itself. Food security is massively misunderstood and underestimated. I fear the majority will only see this when it’s too late and we’re reliant on a distant nation for importing our food.

Don’t you understand there is NO cash. It’s all tied up in the soil 😕

If anyone is interested in some actual facts about Farming businesses in England then have a look here. www.gov.uk/government/statistics/farm-business-income/farm-business-income-by-type-of-farm-in-england-202223--2

It links you to a Gov.Uk page "Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs, Accredited official statistics, Farm Business Income by type of farm in England 2022/23. Updated 14 March 2024"

Sorry the normal clicks links won't work for me just now.

I'm not saying farming isn't an important industry but having awareness of obvious privilege doesn't go amiss.

I meet farmers through my work. It seems like a tough life, except I'd better describe the life as a vocation, and precarious if you are a tenant.

But there has to be a better way of sustaining agriculture then the current model right? Not to mention the B word which farmers all seem to have supported but it hasn't worked out for them.

There's allowance in the employer national insurance budget for small businesses. I think there will have been some consideration of impact assessment here too. And certainly there will be measures with estate planning your family can take advantage of.

Farmers do and will commit suicide in greater numbers then the general population. They often have the means to go through with the act when they get the ideation. And they live far closer to the cycle of life and death plus relentless working hours/years.

How could farmers be better supported OP?

@Willyoujustbequiet but for most farming families the privilege would only come if they sell up completely. They are not sitting there with £6m in the bank.

This is awful news op. I haven’t been able to bring myself to look at the budget beyond snippets I read on here. At 83 your dad should now sign the farm over to you now and enjoy his retirement. He shouldn’t delay as there is likely going to be many people doing this.

@mitogoshigg It’s not as simple as just planning to avoid IHT. If a 45 year old farmer has a sudden and fatal heart attack tomorrow, how is his 20 year old son going to pay, eg a £200k tax bill? It’s impossible without decimating the business.

This will not really affect food prices. According to this article, with its helpful pie chart, only 5% of farmland is held by individuals - i.e. independent family farms. While it's awful for them if they can't afford to farm anymore, their loss won't lead to food insecurity etc. Not enough of Britain's land is in the hands of independent family farms for that. Not that this helps the family farmers, but hopefully this calms the hysteria about food security somewhat.

Analysis: Who owns Britain's farmland? - Farmers Weekly

They are sitting with the potential of £6 million and that immediately puts them streets ahead of 99% of people.

You have people on here that are literally going hungry. Others that are bereaved, lost kids to cancer and had their whole lives destroyed..But here we have a multi millionaire in his 80s threatening suicide due to a tax issue..it's tone fucking deaf.

@Willyoujustbequiet I understand why people might feel upset about the title, but I hope people can understand it came from a place of overwhelming distress (that's what came across to me).

I really hope you don't feel offended by my reply as I don't mean to offend. I'm tired, should be in bed, and probably not expressing how I feel well.

It's absolutely terrible that anyone is vulnerable - and definitely more needs to be done for the poorest and most vulnerable (financially vulnerable, and/or health vulnerable including mental health).

I want a civilised society - with a strong safety net and good public services and food security.

Important for people to realise, I think, that the very poorest will suffer the most if farms are sold. Food prices will increase.

The conspiracy theories are that Bill gates buys up farmland and visited the pm very recently.

We need farmers to produce food here. Whilst we need them to protect the environment it's a balance when you consider who would be producing our food otherwise and how little control we'd have over important things like workers rights and chemical use.

My sympathies for all farmers. They've got crap weather to deal with without adding to the shit.

@NoisyDenimShaker I’m not sure what you’re attempting to illustrate but this issue doesn’t only affect 5% of UK land and doesn’t mean UK food production will be largely unaffected. As a nation we’re at real risk of losing the skills and ability to feed ourselves.
Lots of people on here don’t care about that and would rather we import from half way round the world. Until we can’t…

It's ok, I think you explained yourself well and I don't necessarily disagree tbh.

But can a £1million farm actually produce proper quantities of food? Or is it a toy project for a rich person?

Our ability to feed ourselves will be lost forever if we were to build shiny new homes on land that was meant to grow food for the population

Ultimately they can raise inheritance tax to 100% to pay for the NHS. But good health is linked to a good diet and if people can’t afford to feed themselves then no amount of money is going to save a nation of people surviving on cheap crap.

Wait to build for long enough and there won’t be a need for more housing

Anyone who can leave will leave. Those left behind will face paying higher and higher taxes and the cost of living will go up and up.

I bet he hasn’t got anywhere near a million in his bank account, he is only a millionaire on paper. Do not underestimate the impact of being the person that looses the farm that has been religiously handed down through the generations - I can completely empathise why this could make someone feel suicidal. This is like a bereavement. Many have been earning just enough to sustain the business precisely so they can keep it in the family for their whole lives. 83 years of work for what? He’s not going to see the benefit of the sale money,

The level of envy combined with lack of understanding is staggering. Yes, let's demonise regular, everyday people who work their whole lives with the dream of leaving something of value for their family to inherit.

I'm sickened by the glee some people apparently feel over inheritance tax, to begin with, but this is something else again. So shortsighted, but it's okay, because the really important thing here is that it's not fair that someone else might get something that you won't get. (Never mind that the thing they're getting is something you probably wouldn't want if it were offered, not if you had to adopt the farming lifestyle rather than just selling up the instant you inherited.)

and who exactly id going to be buying and farming the £1million piece of land.

Another Farmer who is facing similar problems or someone who doesn’t live on the land and commutes in

Think about the logistics. It’s a ridiculous way of raising money

Don't see the problem?

So all our arable land is bought up by big multinationals or built over - so what?!

We can just import all our food - lots of soya and avocados flown in across the Atlantic

Then we can hit all our carbon targets at home

Lovely!

Till we realise we've lost all our power as they put the prices up and we can't say no

Or another ash cloud stops air traffic

Or Putin/ China / Iran ramp things up

This thread is just awful. Small farmers are way better than big corp buying them up and pushing the food prices through the roof, look at the US! We still want our fresh milk that is not UHT, cheap food, I know people on MN thinks our food is expensive but it is much much cheaper than the US.

Owning and running a family farm is high risk with low return. People are so horrible to OP. The average age of diary farmer is now over 60. This inheritance tax change is not going to help. You can't just sell a farm and buy another. It is not how farming works.