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.

Yes and Labour so called socialists make darn sure they don't abide by the same rules as everyone else. Starmer even has his own non taxable pension plan brought in just for him!

There would be uproar @StandingSideBySide

There's so much but I'm alright jack attitude like @Coolasfeck but they are mistaken. It absolutely will affect all of us.
There is none so blind as those who refuse to see!
More fool them!

I was asking how everyone would feel if the threshold was lowered to £1 not raised to £1mill.
Personally I feel taxing on death is a disgrace when people have already been taxed to build up their assets. Tax tax and tax again. That’s another thread though.

@StandingSideBySide

Yes it is awful and it is tax, tax, tax and waste

Absolutely ! Of course there would !
Those who think ‘this is fare’ and ‘everyone has to pay it’ and ‘farmers should stop moaning’.
Id love to be on the MN thread if everyone was actually forced to pay it.

Tax his land, Tax his bed, Tax the table at which he's fed.
Tax his tractor, Tax his mule, Teach him taxes are the rule.
Tax his work, Tax his pay, He works for peanuts anyway!
Tax his cow, Tax his goat, Tax his pants, Tax his coat. Tax his ties, Tax his shirt, Tax his work, Tax his dirt.
Tax his tobacco, Tax his drink, Tax him if he tries to think.
Tax his cigars, Tax his beers, If he cries tax his tears.
Tax his car, Tax his gas, Find other ways to tax his ass.
Tax all he has, Then let him know, That you won't be done till he has no dough.
When he screams and hollers, Then tax him some more, Tax him till he's good and sore.
Then tax his coffin, Tax his grave, Tax the sod in which he's laid.
Put these words Upon his tomb, 'Taxes drove me to my doom...'
When he's gone, Do not relax, Its time to apply the inheritance tax.

Well here on new estates landlords. They'll buy three at a time. Much better rental income from new builds.

It doesn’t come in until April 2026 and it’s till 20% lower than for non agricultural related IHT. So I’ll keep shrugging.

Jeremy Clarkson and James Dyson can scream all they want but most of the general population agree with this. The fact people like Dyson have bought vast amounts of land for IHT purposes is negative for consumers.

More smaller farms rather than those giant stretches of land which people aren’t even allowed to walk though will be a good thing in my opinion, so I see it as a positive move. You don’t agree with me which is fine.

I'm not suggesting a neoliberal etc society is a good thing.

@justasking111

This is the problem and I suspected this.

Perhaps this needs to be stopped. Not sure how

April 2026 is not October 3031. Which would give farmers the same chance of some foresight that everyone else has ie 7 years.

Id love to see a poll that states most people agree.
They don’t here on MN and a poll carried out by Deltapol states the majority of people in this country believe farmers should be getting more help, not less.

Brilliant !

Anyone voting yes Yabu clearly have zero understanding of this or simply don’t care that most family farms will go under, be sold off to mass development or global corporations. It’s a fucking disgrace this govt. and no I’m not a farmer and have no farming friends but it’s a disastrous policy that will leave this country in food calamity and having to rely on even more foreign imports.

reeves is not qualified for the job!

We sent 475 to the climate change conference, India 11, USA 0 , China 0.

We're certainly not all singing from the same hymn sheet.

Why will they have to sell 20%?

IHT is roughly 20% on assets over £2M. Right now your family would owe no IHT at all.

If the owner expects to live at least 7 years,
they can start gifting to draw down the value.
Perhaps the older generation should consult a solicitor.

I am new to the thread so I apologise if this has already been brought to your attention

Could you please give us a source for your figures? The very reliable economist and columnist Will Hutton has quoted 500 affected farmers only today.

I feel sad about the future.

Starmer is a vegetarian. I have just been reading about one of the large labour donors who is a vegan and thinks bacon should be banned. They clearly have no problem with as all being forced to eat imported food and simply do not care about UK farmers.

this will force many farms to diversify out of traditional agriculture. Bring on the solar farms; things like this will be needed to generate the cash to pay the inheritance tax bills IMO.

Where do you get 'most of the general population agree with this'?

And have you read posts from people below who are not Dyson or Clarkson and have explained well why this is a huge issue for them and many farmers?

More smaller farms rather than those giant stretches of land which people aren’t even allowed to walk though will be a good thing in my opinion.
@Coolasfeck

Why will smaller farms be more likely to allow people to walk through them?
If there are footpaths then people can walk on them irrespective of who owns the land.

Farmer here so this is my two cents…

Our farm currently supports my grandfather, parents and brother who all work on our family farm which my grandfather owns. I have my own farm where I am a tenant.

We will definitely be affected by the new changes and to pay the bill we will almost certainly have to sell land for building - the easiest way to raise the most money using the least land. We simply don’t have that kind of money in the bank.

The big land grabbing, tax dodging corporations that this is trying to target will be totally unaffected, they have other assets and cash in the bank - genuine farmers do not.

For us though, the IHT is just the tip of the iceberg in a succession of anti-farming legislation which goes beyond this budget. We have jumped through every environmental hoop, diversified, economised all in the name of cheap food and still we’re painted as the ones letting the side down.

A very interesting post. I think your last question got to the core issue.

I accept the need for food security and I believe PPs who farm are sincere in their commitment to the land. I too sense that the connection can be magical.

But in essence this is absolutely about passing on generational wealth. From 1894 when Estate Duty in its original form was introduced until 1984 when Margaret Thatcher did away with IHT on farms, farmers managed to pay.

HTH, I care much more about extracting IHT on farms from the Dysons and Clarksons than from bona fide farmers. But the terms are generous and by supporting Brexit the farmers helped to create the current economic mess: if they had campaigned en masse against it, as the NFU recommended, the country might have taken notice. Greed got in the way. Everyone is paying.

The economist Will Hutton argues in his Guardian column today that this tax may will spur innovative arrangements we can’t yet foresee, to the benefit of the farmers themselves: necessity is the mother of invention.

Not a biased article then 🤣🤣🤣……nor does this biased article site where any of his assumptions / guesses / figures come from.
There’s nothing factual to see here just whinging.

The Department of the Environment and Rural Affairs have different figures but they don’t write for the Guardian

( at least we know what posters are reading now though……)

Dyson and Clarkson are bona fide farmers. They produce food just like me and other smaller farmers. You might not like their personalities or business methods but they are still farmers. My late dad always said ‘there’s no sentiment in business’ and was quite right.

I think people have become so disconnected from how their city life is actually facilitated they don't understand that someone must grow, raise, farm the food they eat.

It's a rhetorical game, like Monopoly - why shouldn't the farmers pay the same as the graphic designer or the management consultant? They landed on the square, so pay up. But the truth is the farmers are more important and we can't do without them. We just can't.