UK Farmers

[SunQueen24]

Can someone please explain to me what today is all about?

Also for those saying farmers could gift the farm to their children, what do they do then for a living, place to live? There are conditions if you still reside in the property you have gifted

Tge obviously answer is start disposing of your assets sooner.Nothing passed on more than 7 years before death is subject to IHT.

No body knows what the future holds. Farm accidents happen frequently.

They don’t though.

They buy cheap agricultural land that has to stay agricultural… lots of ludicrous things count as agricultural… and build a house on it…

I go to loads of campsites on small holdings on small plots of agriculturally designated land. They breed pets, they have an alpaca and knit socks, they have a few hens and sell 6 eggs a day…

I haven't heard much lately about the 'land use framework' that was in production by the previous govt. That'll be an interesting one...

Like I said I have extended family who are farmers exactly as you describe. The people on my Facebook feed being the most vocal about supporting this are the ones who otherwise are quite keen to flaunt their obvious wealth. Obviously they don’t represent all farmers. One has just bought a second 300 acre farm locally and was quite keen to tell everyone. But I agree that not all farmers are doing well.

@mm81736 and not much good the for elderly farmers who haven't gifted the farm yet and might not live for another 7 years. And they didn't gift it because this relief was in place

Many developers and large corporations are snapping up bits of land to meet biodiversity net gain targets.

Local authorities planning departments impose a requirement to provide green space if you’re a developer. So they snap up bits of farmland and then it just sits there as a tick in their box. Or until they can develop it and profit.

@Wiskeydour - I may be being simplistic but why isn't it split up into the whole families names individually? Or at least those who wish to continue farming? So farmer Giles owns a 1/4 / Mrs f Giles own a 1/4 and Ben and will own a 1/4 each?

If their children farm the land they have been gifted etc. then this isn’t likely to be an issue.

If they don’t, and just hold it as an asset (like many millionaires do now) then it’s right for it to be subject to tax.

It's this attitude that's fucking up britain.

They only have to pay if the farm is worth over 3 million pounds. I should be so lucky as to be able to hand that on.

If they hand over the farm to a child and live for another 7 years then no tax will be liable.

Sick of well off farmers whinging. I live in the countryside and there are no poor farmers here.

Will no one think of poor Jeremy Clarkson or the aristocratic owners of large estates?

Because they don't break up farms!!! it is a historic thing going back hundreds of years. Generally passes to the eldest son who continues to farm.

We're farmers, not wholly against it, but think the values for exemption need to be higher to keep the small family farm out of inheritance tax bracket.

Re driving swanky cars and private schools, the ones I know like that have either sold land for development, have a small estate (e.g. 2000 acres and 20 cottages), or are up to their eye balls in debt and it's all show (I don't know why some farmers have to be so flash, they are usually the ones who are forced to sell up or go bankrupt eventually).

We drive an old car and have kids in state schools.

@ClaudiaWankleman why would it not be an issue?

RR was obviously trying to target the people who had bought land to avoid IHT, but unfortunately some genuine farmers are being hit by this.

It is quite hard to get your head round when your own, much smaller estate, will be subject to IHT. I do support British Farmers but I’m not sure that this is something I support in principle, but as I’ve said, I don’t understand it well enough.

I won’t be crying into my cornflakes if the local farmers littering my Facebook feed are taxed. They are generally happy to share news of their wealth.

Farm land sold off will likely go to property developers.

I think the issue is that Labour have used a sledgehammer to crack a nut. And it comes from a lack of understanding about how rural businesses work. For every so called farmer who sits on a big house and 100 acres as a way to pass on a property tax free, there are many more small working family farms that will be screwed.

Also if not many farms are going to be hit by this, what is the point of the change in tax law? How much money will it actually raise? Have the done similar sums to the VAT on private schools fees, where some calculations show it is actually going to cost the country more and not save money.

If you make a lifetime gift it may be subject to CGT. You will be exempt from this if you are transferring your home that you have occupied. A farm consists of more than a home, it also comprises land, farm buildings and farm equipment.

If the farmer continues to live in the property there are also rules relating to reservation of benefit which may have tax implications. So it's not as simple as saying that if the farm is transferred 7 years before death there will be no IHT.

Farmers also have a lot of machinery which may be on credit and there may be issues if transfers are made before credit is paid off. Tractors and combines can cost hundreds of thousands of pounds.

I think that the government have seen that they can catch those who are taking advantage of tax legislation to invest in land to avoid tax. However they do not seem to have taken into account the effect on small and medium sized family farms.

I live in a very rural area and know many farmers and know how hard they work . The picture of rich farmers sending their kids to private school and swanning around in top of the range brand new four wheel drives is not one I recognise.

@Janedoe82 If the threshold is indeed £3m they wouldn’t pay any tax on the first £3m, so if the farm was worth £3.5m they’d pay 20% of 500,000. So £100k over ten years, or £10k a year.

You don’t pay IHT on the entire value of the estate.

These are the same farmers that voted in their thousands for Brexit! I have very little sympathy. As people have said, this mainly targets assets over £3 million and there are ways around the IHT if you're smart.

I live in a rural area full of gentleman farmers and smaller tenanted farmers, they all meet at the local pubs and moan about their lot! They all have an inflated sense on entitlement are often incredibly patronising/misogynistic and not in touch with the real world! If your business if not profitable or you're working for nothing then it's time to rethink what you're doing! Why haven't you spent the past twenty years protesting outside Tesco etc for the small price they pay you? Most farmers will always vote Tory, so this is just the right-wing press' way of stirring the pot! And crying because your tax breaks are no longer there. Life is hard for all of us at the moment, not just farmers!

Surely that depends what you a growing. Smaller acreages would support more vegetable production and regenerative farming type models rather than monocultures of wheat and oil seed rape.

I think you'll find you're the cheeky fucker for making a statement like that and lumping everyone under the one umbrella.
Go get some manners.

Farm land that has been sold near us is currently sitting fallow. Investors are hedging their bets that at some point they will be granted planning permission for housing

And it's not an unreasonable bet, one such development is being built now