Farming - kerfuffle

[Solomotree]

interesting how Jeremy Clarkson, one of the biggest vocal opponents of the inheritance tax on farms, literally boasted that he bought the farm to avoid paying it. It’s people like this we need to clamp down on and where people’s ire should be directed. And the vast vast majority of farms will not be affected.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/nov/01/farmers-shocked-budget-inheritance-tax-estates

It's a land grab. It will force farmers to sell land likely to the developers to satisfy Labour frenzy to build over the countryside
Mind you, with uncontrolled immigration they'll need to.

Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos are now big farmers. We're looking at a strange future in the UK now.

"Bill Gates is the biggest private owner of farmland in the United States.

"Global Food Roundup: Jeff Bezos Quest for Alternative Meat - Bloomberg" https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2024-06-28/global-food-roundup-jeff-bezos-quest-for-alternative-meat

"Bill Gates is the biggest private owner of farmland in the United States. Why? | Bill Gates | The Guardian" https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/apr/05/bill-gates-climate-crisis-farmland

"Zuckerberg derided for his ‘high quality beef’ ranch where cows are fed macadamia nuts and beer | Mark Zuckerberg | The Guardian" https://amp.theguardian.com/environment/2024/jan/10/zuckerberg-cattle-hawaii-beef-environment

With adequate tax planning, you could pay nothing at all on a £3m farming estate inherited from married parents.

Hopefully it will make farmland cheaper, so family farms aren’t worth as much because nobody is trying to buy them for IHT planning. It would be much better if farms weren’t automatically handed down - some farmers’ kids don’t want to farm, and some kids who weren’t born on farms do want to. Those choices should be available

Where do you think the money comes from for everyone else who has to pay iht?

Loads of people have to sell a beloved family home in order to pay it, or have to take out a mortgage to pay it.

Its not fair that farmers get to pass on a fabulous valuable asset to their kids tax free while anybody else with an asset of that value isn't able to.

The good news for James Dyson is that the changes to the non dom rules probably mean he won't be subject to inheritance tax in the UK at all any more, so he can sell off his farms and invest in more profitable ventures.

Pre 1992 farmers had to pay inheritance tax (I think at a higher rate than they are having to pay now) they seemed to keep going then and build bigger qnd bigger farms. Also all farmers I know send their kids to independent schools so I really don't buy this below minimum wage rubbish

Actually all IHT tax should be scrapped

This is a fabulous point.

Well I didn’t go to private school or any of my parents friends kids! As I newly qualified nurse I was earning more than my parents were making ! So no, not all farmers are cash rich !
Enjoy the end of food security!!

Conveniently ignored the pre 1992 point?

Is that beloved family home also their primary residence, employment and their only income?

It's not about fairness it's about making sure there's enough skilled people with sufficient resources available to them to produce enough food for everyone else to eat.

That's the same arguement baby boomers use sitting in the houses or in the houses they bought from the profit from houses they bought pre 1992 as to why young people these days could get on the housing ladder if only they stopped buying Starbucks and smart phones.

It's a completely different world in farming now with land values etc than it was in 1992.

Ffs …Are Labour supporters on here so hard of thinking or is bots? I hope it’s bots because they can’t be that dense?

Means test WFA and they point to the fact that Mick Jagger doesn’t need it. How many pensioners are multi millionaire front men to a best selling band??

Change the rules meant to protect farmers and farming and its well that what Jeremy Clarkson and Dyson are doing??! How many farms are owned by multi millionaire TV presenters or Inventors. Seriously, that is the ‘typical’ farmer??!

Hike up NI and MW with little warning or opportunity to plan and it’s all about millionaire ‘fat cat’ bosses. Again, these are a minority! That vast proportion of SME are small businesses employing 10 people.

It’s utterly utterly pathetic.

Changes to employment allowance should help the smaller SME's with the change 👍

I'd actually really appreciate a response as to why you think selling the childhood home when mum and dad have both passed away and keeping what's left as an inheritance after paying IHT is in any way comparable to having to sell a portion of your livlihood and your earning ability as the son or daughter of a farmer who has been in partnership with their parents.

In most farming families the older generations stay in the farming partnership until the very end, although they may not be outside doing the work they remain actively involved in the decision making. Their sons and daughters gradually take over the running of the farm as the years go by. It's common for 2 or 3 generations to all be involved in the running of the farm at once.

When the oldest generations dies its business as usual, there isn't suddenly less work to do on the farm or a need for less land or machinery, it's just a change of who is now at the top of the tree.

What is missing in all the reporting is that this change requires primary legislation before it is enacted. If it is as unpopular as it appears to be it is highly unlikely it will pass.

As are the children in other types of family business. Any worries about how they cope?

Labour has a massive majority.

Not just the decision making. My 84 year old father in law will be feeding and sorting cattle this weekend. Neighbours dad will be rolling in the wheat. Mother in law will pop in to do the cattle passports.

In what way is it anywhere near the same argument?
Hopefully I huge reset in land values will make everyone happy then? Somehow I suspect it would not though and farmers would be complaining if their land was worth next to nothing so they didn't have to pay inheritance tax.

Not in the HoL they don't and I think a lot of Labour MPs have been caught by surprise by this. NFU Will lobby furiously as will the CLA. It will be watered down massively if not scrapped altogether.

Dyson actually makes a profit on his arable farming. He has ploughed £120 million into his strawberry farm business and other farming businesses. I have no problem with him whatsoever.

OK here's an idea then. Sell the farmhouse to pay the inheritance tax but keep the land. Same equivalent to what everyone else has to do. You don't need a big farmhouse to farm. Live in a little farm workers cottage, there you go, money available to pay the bill by doing what everyone else has to do.

There aren't many other types of family business that require the business to own a few hundred acres of land in order to operate. That is the problem - the value of land on paper isn't actually a liquid asset that is available to pay an inheritance tax bill.

The 'assets' of most other family businesses won't be anywhere near the same value as farmland.