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.

Many many did. All the farmers in our area did. We had to live with the lies and placards for years. The thing is when you are shamelessly vocal and visual about your lies you can’t back track when they are exposed and you’re proved wrong.

We didn’t all vote for brexit!

A large part of the farming community did and campaigned for it. It was widely reported at the time even though your union advised you not too. We saw the anti EU placards from motorways and across land for years running up to it.

Anyhow the lack of support many feel like giving is not just down to Brexit it’s down to many other grievances documented further down this thread .

Business Property Relief has also been capped at £1m now.

So yes, B&Bs that are worth £1m+ will need to find 20% of any value over the allowance to pay IHT. Either they have a sizeable cash reserve to use for this or they sell the B&B building and hope they find a comparable one cheaper nearby so they can continue trading.

And this goes for all family businesses, those which require a sizeable property will be the hardest hit because they’ll still need the same size space to continue trading. For example, funeral directors need space to store coffins and large facilities for receiving and processing dead bodies. They also need space to park hearses which are larger than most cars. Generally we hope they load the hearse in a yard rather than on the street in front of the shop for the dignity of the deceased and the grieving relatives.

For certain businesses the annual profit may not be enough to put some aside each year to cover any IHT bills at the same time as maintaining a viable business premises and equipment, paying staff and insurance as well as all tax and bills.

Also that 20% has to be paid every time the business passes on - if Mr Smith dies in August and it passes to his daughter who is killed two months later in a car crash (it can happen), her descendants then have to find 2xIHT from the estate.

And remember house prices have increased about 40% in the last decade. If that also applies to business premises then a property worth about £700,000 now will be valued at £1m in 2034.

The £1m threshold is set, it probably won’t increase. The current IHT threshold was set in 2009. Back then £325k was a lot for a house, in 2024 it isn’t. In the coming years £1m for business property won’t seem as generous as it does now.

I'm finding the hostility towards farmers on here really weird, and based on certain assumptions that suggest many posters know next to nothing about farming, or farmers.

Be careful what you wish for.
Less meat supplied by uk farmers - more meat supplied from abroad. Bad all round. Lower welfare standards for the animals, hauling meat from abroad is bad for the environment. Less food security.
Eating less meat won’t make everyone healthier & happier. Meat has health benefits. The majority of the country eat meat, healthy or not.

Because they are always moaning, CAP Brexit, Public good... its non stop... even my Dairy farmer neighbour, he boasts he is making over 300k profit on milk and has done regularly for the last few years.
Tax to come out of that of course - he moans about that too - but its still a substantial amount of money in his pocket.

Yet he is now constantly banging on about this IHT thing, its 20% & he has 10 fucking years to pay it and thats only if he doesn't do a bit of basic tax planning.

They are now threatening to withhold food supplies, well if they can afford to do that, they can all fuck off, obviously not quite as poor as mice as they try and make out they are.

Me too, luckily in real life we haven’t faced these hostilities. Neighbours & locals & strangers even have been nothing but supportive.
We are just normal people, our kids go to state school, we use the nhs, I don’t know any farmers driving about in a Range Rover round here.
I think certain posters have a stereotype in their head of what a farmer is and can’t see that the majority of us are just normal people but with much more worries and responsibility than someone with a 9-5 job.
Maybe people can’t understand why we work 80 hours a week 52 weeks a year for little profit. No point trying to explain because they won’t believe anyone could be that stupid. Ha!

Less meat is healthier, much healthier particularly red meat. It’s better for the environment too. Most can’t afford it now anyway so are forced to eat less. Welfare will be impacted hugely by Brexit.

Ah so here we see that superiority we see so often when farmers try to justify locals not having access to green spaces, over use of pesticides, extortionate farm shops, fertilisers in their streams….

And they want support from all these ignorant hoi polloi.🤔

The farmers will only be rich when that have to sell the farm to pay the tax.
Potentially lots of rich ex-farmers but reduced food security, higher food prices for everyone.

Farmers screamed loudly for Brexit. That has cost this country, so far, £100 billion. It’s only fair that they should help make up the shortfall.🤷‍♀️

As I made my cuppa this morning and poured in the milk it occurred to me that if the farmers poured the milk down the drain for a few days it would concentrate everyone's mind very quickly.

@G1nT1n

stopping locals from enjoying green spaces by denying Right to Roam.

Do you mean blocking access to footpaths or stopping people from walking wherever they want through fields of crops?

I think part of it is simply numbers. The large majority live in urban settings. Very few know farmers directly. No concept of the work involved, the logistics or the realities. Farmers don't have PR firms or HR departments and the lifestyle is often gruelling and exhausting, (and no offense) not terribly fashionable.

When I think of the stats on mental health in farming and read posts sneering at farmers for 'complaining' it is .... well, it's depressing.

You seem very angry.

I think you’ll find it’s the reverse and a lot of resentment comes from those in rural areas who live alongside farmers and witness first hand the reality and behaviours that cause grievances.

Yes I am about many things to do with farming. That is allowed. We are also allowed to support the new inheritance measures and not support farmers.

The answer about who exactly should pay the tax instead is obvious. Poor people should, so the wealthy can keep all their millions.

Dairy farmers make a fortune now, a herd of 350 cows makes an average of 6500l of milk per day - according to Bennets farms - net profit is between 1p to 1.5p per litre, they wont throw that down the drain and if they did, most would be in breach of contract to the super markets etc they supply.

The way they are moaning about this, you'd think every farmer in the country was 94yo and days from dying.

Superiority? Hoi polloi?
Again, stereotyping much?
Locals not having access to green spaces? Plenty parks and green public spaces round here but I realise that’s not the same anywhere.
Why do you think the public should have access to private property?
It is not safe for members of the public to wander around a farm at random. We have livestock & machinery that can kill people.

So they want the money from the tax payer for "Public Good" and tax breaks no one else gets but the cry is then "Get off my laaannnnd!!!"

I see where you re coming from now.

I know £1k a month rental for a large farmhouse in the shires. Too much Jilly Cooper I suspect as well

I mentioned stats on mental health in farming. This article also mentions the very long hours. Content warning, suicide:

farming.co.uk/news/mental-health-in-farming--who-cares-#:~:text=21*%20farm%20workers%20lost%20their,the%20Office%20of%20National%20Statistics.