To ask why you support the farmers, regarding inheritance tax?

[WheresFluffy]

Just that, really.
I'm interested to know why people support, or not, the farmers regarding the inheritance tax changes.

YABU - it's been done to death
YANBU - learning why people believe things is important.

The NFU have chuckled along for years as agricultural land increased in value, way above inflation. It is partly down to their lobbying for all the benefits Farmers actually get, that prices became so high. The NFU is made up of wealthy people who are very used to serving themselves long before the general public.

Google says we import and export Wheat - it's seems crazy exporting it if we need it ourselves.
The price of bread has skyrocketed- and butter, too. {If you like the nice quality bread and English Butter}

This!

@WooleyMunky Hardly. The miners were working class grafters. The farmers are mainly middle class tax-dodgers

However..Farmers even before this Inheritance tax announcement have a high suicide rate.
Long, lonely hours most likely- Mum's colleague was a Farmer's Daughter- her brother stayed to help on the farm, the Daughter trained as a teacher.

When her parents grew frail and died, her brother was working endless hours {Beautiful part of the World}
Mum's friend went to visit her brother, as his mental health was suffering.

When she arrived, she found the road blocked by police.
He had tragically taken his own life.

It does seem a relentlessly hard life for some farmers- yet for others, the wealthy ''hobby'' farmers, backed up by massive wealth, it's much easier.

A hundred years ago, Farms employed so many men and women - ploughmen, horsemen, pigmen Shepherds- with the advent of tractors, now a single man or woman can plough hundreds of acres.

Loneliness seems to be an issue.

How many farmers do you know? Have you spent any time being a farmer? Because that is a pretty sweeping statement. Imagine being that judgemental….

also, what is your job?

I agree. I don't think costing was done properly on this, on vat on school fees, on raising employer NI contributions....
Worrying.

Because I think it is wrong that the government are closing down British industries. Very sad.

I'm not a farmer
I fully support taxing the rich
But FFS leave the poor farmers alone!
It's a bloody hard job for not much reward.
Farming is a family business that needs passing down or it will die out.
We need to be able to produce our own sustainable food.
Tax the fucking bankers and Amazon, Shell, BP and the like more!!!

Exactly

The stats in your link only cover England 2011 - 2015 and there's a note;

In the past, agricultural and related trades have received much attention because farmers have been found to have an elevated risk of suicide...

Also, the data collected only covers ages 20 to 64. At least a third of farmers appear to be aged over 65 - therefore any suicides in this age group would not be included.

The IFS which is independent has come out and said only a tiny number of farms will be affected and they are the most wealthy.

Also 40% of sales last year were to investors not farmers as its a well known tax scam.

They should pay.

A few people have said this. Where are the parents supposed to live, if not on the farm? They’re not allowed to gift the property and still live or work there, or it doesn’t count as a gift for IHT.

Someone said a company would help- no, you still pay IHT on shares, same problem.

I support the farmers because I want the farms to continue to exist.

Surely if you’re selling off all your land to developers, you will fall into general inheritance tax rules anyway. So those aren’t going to be farmers who are going to be affected by the tax. Or am I missing something?

I don't support them. Anything that costs / pisses off that scrofulous knuckle dragging oxygen thieving tax evading twat Clackson is good with me 👌
And Dyson can Do One too 🖕

And everyone should be pissed off that the nil rate band hasn’t changed since 2009. The £325k allowance should be £500k now.

When you consider that the average farmer's income is almost 20% lower than the national average - and yet their average working week is 65 hours - about 1 and 3/4 times the national average, I think they need every bit of their land/assets to remain on the farm in order to protect our food supplies.*

We all know every bit of land sold off to p[ay IHT will be snapped up by developers or investors looking for carbon offset or solar farms.

Another question: why hasn't the government made it mandatory to plonk solar farms on car parks/buildings/newbuilds in preference to siting them on quality fertile south facing land?

*(figures might not be 100% doing this from memory)

I'm connected with the private client/wealth management space.

Investment in agricultural land and property has been an inheritance tax planning favourite for ages now. We have a lot of clients who have made money in finance, law, consulting etc and buy small holdings. They are hobby farmers at best - there's a whole industry around advising on how to maximise benefits, from what constitutes a reasonable "farmhouse" to availing yourself of various subsidies and the like relating to green incentives etc.

These are the people the change is targeting. Only a small percentage of uk farms will actually be caught and they are typical the largest/richest.

The fact that so many chose to protest today wearing tweed flapcaps & blazers, or expensive Barbour waxed jackets, was extremely telling as to who is most worried about that and how limited their exposure is to the extent of suffering in other parts of our society.

We all have to pay a bit more. These are not the poorest/most vulnerable among us.

Someone said a company would help- no, you still pay IHT on shares, same problem

You can get business property relief actually.

Gosh, there are some very defensive and even aggressive comments on here backing the Government's position. They're very similar in tone and content to some of the Labour ministers quizzed about this on their morning media rounds, who can barely contain their disdain for rural communities.
Welcome, Labour HQ employees! You're brave....

I.support them for the purposes of food security and I don't want the countryside built on.

Firstly, old grandad living on the farm is likely now living in a cottage not the farmhouse. That was given to his son when he had children. Grandson who now has a girlfriend or wife is in another cottage. When he has kids he will move into the farmhouse and Dad will move to the cottage.

Now remember while all this is going on, they are paying no personal mortgage, no rent and in most cases the farm pays the majority of electric, gas, heating fuel, council tax, water rates etc. Now imagine if you had all those day to day costs removed from your monthly bills. Could you possibly have saved a few bob for the day you fully retire and need to get a home of your own?