To support UK Farmers

[TheHateIsNotGood]

And due to KS's inability to face them in Wales today they are now thinking of going on strike. Because the govt are being too stubborn to reconsider how they apply IHT on working family farms. By all means close the loophole that allows the 'landed gentry' to take advantage of the agricultural exception but not with so blunt an instrument.

I was hoping to add a post to an existing thread but there isn't one despite it being headline news today.

PenGold
Sorry, that's not what I meant. Anyone who is not covered by existing "farming exemption" or whatever it's technical name is would be liable to inheritance tax if their inheritance met the criteria. Without pausing to check, I think it's about 7-8% that do have to pay.

Actually @GentleFlower they are not! Cut it right back to basic survival!

You need a farmer everyday 3 times a day in order to eat. Without food you won't survive long.
If farmers disappeared and the food they produce with it you are in serious trouble fast.

No point in having medics if the population starves to death.
No need for care homes if there's no elderly because they have died of malnutrition.
Nobody needs to go anywhere if there so weak due to lack of food.
No need for bin men if there is no rubbish being created due to NO FOOD!

You understanding yet!

The only other service we need as much as food is water.

To be fair it seems from this current thread that none of the Mumsnet farmers did! They were all staunch remainers to a woman.
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/politics/5113307-farmers-who-voted-for-brexit-views-now

(I suspect it was all those Londoners really )

And how many of those people are taxed over and over again on the same set of business assets (all of the tools they use to generate their income)? Every single time a partner in a multi generational family farm dies, the younger generation will be taxed on the tools that they are already using to produce food at an artificially low price. What other business has such a high value of essential working assets to profitability?

AuntyBumBum
🤣 And I suspect those condemning me for commenting on something I know little about have never passed a view on immigration, single mothers, benefit scroungers, antisocial behaviour, trans people or any issue of the day. I'm sure they stick to farming and pass no comment unless they are an expert in the field (with the cows and sheep ).

@GentleFlower I am no idiot! I have Reported your post!
If we have another war or you know another pandemic (is your memory so short you have forgotten the empty shelves of 4 years ago already?) then we won't be relying on imported goods!
And how the hell will we afford them in any form of global crisis? You think I'm being an idiot for pointing out that loosing a significant amount of our family farms will put us in a precarious position food security wise? Because it will. And if we run short of food people will go hungry and people will die.
We are already facing shortages of food around the globe. It will only get worse with climate change. Food security is more important than ever!

Niche subject? Do you not eat food?

KS is a f*cking coward, hiding in Venue Cymru and not appearing to the protestors outside.
During campaigning the term 'fully costed' was used many times by the liebour campaigners.

This seems to translate as 'not a clue how many will be affected' in every policy change so far: pensioners, farmers, small businesses...

No I don't pass judgment on things I know nothing about.
I research and find out the information I need to make an informed decision. I read, listen to podcasts, watch things online and take in differing points of view.

Does your parents' home provide your income for the family and produce something?

It "produces" housing, just like a tree produces apples. If you didn't have the house you would have to buy the housing in at substantial expense (rent). Financially the income the house produces is called imputed rent (and in some countries, and a long time ago in the UK, you have to pay tax on it).

Although I think we're wandering from the point!

Various reasons. For us it’s a combination of identity, family legacy, pride at producing quality food with good safety and welfare standards and a sense of duty. Until now, it’s also been down to a trade off where we’ve been able to work the land with our parents and children, knowing that provided they work hard, our children could carry on the business when we’re gone. It’s what we know.

We could ask the same question of those in education and healthcare. Their career choice doesn’t always seem the most sensible choice for wellbeing but luckily for the rest of us they are vocations and human choices aren’t always logical or entirely self-serving.

I think the issue is a larger one actually. The UK should incentivise family businesses to continue to be passed down rather than encouraging people to cash out before they die. It allows for long term planning and stability.

Germany for example, has inheritance taxes but there are reliefs for family businesses that go up to 100% if certain conditions are met, such as the heir continuing the business for at least seven years, with other conditions around payroll etc, to avoid sham business continuity just to avoid tax.

I didn’t mean for this to sound quite so twee!

It’s actually a really good question and one that has made me reflect, so thank you @OddityOddityOdd

Farmers have been voting to subject people much worse off than themselves to harsh tory scapegoating for long enough to call you unreasonable for supporting them IMO.

Despite their essential produce, farmers are in it for themselves and many have been paid substantial state subsidies for empty fields.

And just to be clear, I'm no fan of Starmer either but the constant attacks in the media and on social media et al against a party that has only been in power for a fraction of the time the tories have been systematically ruining the country for are frankly too much to stomach.

Hard to describe the levels of stupidity required to look even further right for solutions to problems deliberately caused by the right.

Hey! Come again 🙄 not all (or even many) farmers were Tory voters. Stop making such ridiculous incorrect sweeping statements!

Subsidies are paid for the benefit of the consumers ie YOU not the farmer. The government has been subsidising essential food since the 50s. This keep food prices artificially low. But that doesn't mean that the subsidies are sufficient to make up the shortfall they don't.

Farmers are not paid for empty fields unless there is a need for them to remain empty. Usually for flood management reasons - which again benefits YOU the public not the farmer! Farmers don't want empty fields. They want to work the land and be paid a fair price for what they produce.

I don’t think MN is a good representation of national opinion. It seems to be dominated by shouty, extreme left, miserable gits who would cut of their nose to spite their face - a good representation of Labour leadership at present, but not the majority.

Perhaps it would help if I venture that the level of stupidity mentioned in the final sentence in my comment might refer to those sufficiently committed to their own stance to assume authority on what is (and isn't) fact.

@Alphaalga you seem to have very little (or no) understanding of the facts 🤷🏻‍♀️

Yeah, whatever you reckon.

A huge mistake was
Made by the treasury when making the farm value calculations. They ommited the actual value of the faarming business, which is subject to IHT. Milking parlours/ farmk g machinery/tractors all hundreds of thousands of pounds pushing the smaller farms into the IHT bracket deeming the farm unviable as a business. The hardest aspect is that the tax comes in very soon so the farms wont be able to take out insurance to help pay the debt.
I am very fearful of the UK’s long term outlook of being even 30 % self sufficient in food production. Imagine importing all out Milk/poultry/beef/eggs and wheat for bread making - its a very bleak outlook for future generations.
I'm sure the older generations rememeber food rationing as our own food production during the war was incredibly low hence the mass
Movement of the land army to grow food! The last and current government have zero interest in a decent farming policy - the focus now is Net zero so farmers can earn more NOT producing food and leave the fields to rewild!

Interesting - but I understood that farmers can buy an insurance policy for the IHT so that you won't have to sell?

Stop delivering food off the farms - shelves will be empty in two/three days. Can't eat houses!

Imagine the cost of that policy if the farming Dad is 85???? It won't be £500 per annum