Your occasional reminder that these months of tantrums are about farmers being asked to pay *half the rate of inheritance tax the rest of you are liable for*. - ThreadSky

petefrasermusic.bsky.social • 13 days ago

Your occasional reminder that these months of tantrums are about farmers being asked to pay *half the rate of inheritance tax the rest of you are liable for*.

Reposted from Giles Wilkes

They're either here to complain about paying inheritance tax or apologise for voting Brexit, can't work out which

Comments

edmorrish.bsky.social•13 days ago

it's a little more nuanced than that, because if you inherit a farm that you have (most likely) been working on all your life, you somehow have to come up with the inheritance tax before the estate is released to you (like you'd have to pay iht on a house before you were able to sell it)...

edmorrish.bsky.social•13 days ago

at a time when farming barely pays, this is unaffordable to working farmers. however, you could just give your farm to your kids while you're alive, and if you survive for seven years you're off the hook for iht (and who leaves a farm to someone who's not been working on it?)

petefrasermusic.bsky.social•13 days ago

Yeah, it seems like there are plenty of loopholes. And I’m all for greater subsidies and market regulation to make farming more economically sustainable.

samuraipizzarob.bsky.social•13 days ago

Part of the problem is that original faces of this whole thing were Jeremy Clarkson and James Dyson, two people that bought farming land as a form of tax dodging in the first place, and who could 'easily afford' the IHT hit.

This also falls into the 'fix Britain, Labour...no, not like that' bucket.

edmorrish.bsky.social•13 days ago

yes, the farmers who may actually be affected by these changes have not been served well by their cheerleaders.

samuraipizzarob.bsky.social•13 days ago

No, they haven’t, and as we’ve alluded to there is a lot of nuance here that has been stripped out, and a lot of double standards which further muddy the waters.

petefrasermusic.bsky.social•13 days ago

Also, neither of them are dead! They could extremely easily avoid this tax legally, right?

samuraipizzarob.bsky.social•13 days ago

Correct.

joeyclose.bsky.social•13 days ago

Don't they have like 10yrs to pay it? And isn't that true of B&Bs?

edmorrish.bsky.social•13 days ago

i don't know, jon, you tell me

edmorrish.bsky.social•13 days ago

someone has just told me they get to pay 10yrs interest free instalments. i also blocked them for their unpleasant tone.

petefrasermusic.bsky.social•13 days ago

Found myself doing that quite a lot of late

joeyclose.bsky.social•13 days ago

From what I can see, it is paid over 10 years in interest free installments. Not sure if they are equally weighted or flexible. I can't see any similar IHT exemptions or reductions for other businesses where the business and the home are linked.

joeyclose.bsky.social•13 days ago

So I'm much more fundamentally worried that the margins on farming are so tight that farmers can't afford a maximum 0.7%-2% time-limited tax. (Genuinely worried, not point making worried).

joeyclose.bsky.social•13 days ago

I'd also be very happy to take payment in kind if I was the treasury. Not sure why they couldn't basically do help-to-buy here. (I assume it's because house builders have more lobbyists and fewer Farage-type grifters on their side)

eleph.bsky.social•13 days ago

That's not the case - they will have I think 10 years to pay.

petefrasermusic.bsky.social•13 days ago

Yeah, I get that. And I get that’s it’s odd cause it’s a business, but businesses that you inherit are an odd idea too.

samwhyte.bsky.social•13 days ago

And materially it means that a very small number of massive farms will have to do a bit of tax planning.

keepof4worlds.bsky.social•13 days ago

Complicated by the fact that farms are not only businesses but also a way of life, a vocation and (generally) a hole in the ground that doesn’t make money… like, I’m not convinced that farmers forced to sell will find buyers who will continue to farm…

norock.bsky.social•13 days ago

I think this is why I struggle to sympathise - the "doesn't make money" bit. They're a powerful lobby, they can cut off the food supply and block roads and they use that power to... moan about a tax they could avoid, rather than demand supermarkets stop squeezing their margins.

keepof4worlds.bsky.social•13 days ago

I’d be interested to understand the heft that large cooperatives can have (e.g Arla) in rebalancing the power dynamic between farmers and supermarkets. I genuinely know nothing here.

bluesea13.bsky.social•13 days ago

Their tractors are very new and shiny aren’t they ? It’s like they’re never used

nicolekidmansnose.bsky.social•13 days ago

Fuck them, overfed greedy cunts.

nicolekidmansnose.bsky.social•13 days ago

FARMERS: "But we grow your food, BE GRATEFUL!!!!" 🤡

And we subsidize you richly to do so, while you also destroy our rivers in the process!! Plus, we produce the machinery without which you'd still be using ox plows. So shut the fuck up.

rogermccarthy.bsky.social•13 days ago

Mencken had these greedy fuckers right a century ago.

petefrasermusic.bsky.social•13 days ago

Outside of the world of being paid to have an opinion, is there any sympathy for this? From people who know what it’s actually about?

gazbaa.bsky.social•13 days ago

If it wasn’t this they’d be crying about something else. Farmers know they’re free to sell up and do something else right?

quincel.bsky.social•13 days ago

I suspect their is, from lots of people who think no-one should have to pay IHT at all.

blacktopmagazine.bsky.social•13 days ago

Well, that is the elephant in the room, and no, I don't get why anyone should pay IHT, either.

This scheme was imposed to stop the very wealthy from exploiting a tax loophole: Clarkson boasted about buying his farm to do just that, years ago.

quincel.bsky.social•13 days ago

*there

petefrasermusic.bsky.social•13 days ago

I guess so, but even then surely there’s a bit of eye rolling at this level of disruption from people on the hook for half as much taxation? It’s bizarre to me.

blacktopmagazine.bsky.social•13 days ago

Yeah, especially when you or I would have to come up with 40% the second the deeds change hands, no, no, you don't get ten years, pay up, NOW, or you're off inside.

samwhyte.bsky.social•13 days ago

I was talking to my friend, who's been a market gardener since he was 16 and he was like "my inclination it always to stand up for farmers, but I don't think that's really who this is about"

petefrasermusic.bsky.social•13 days ago

Radio 4 have covered this quite closely, and every protestor I’ve heard them speak to, when pushed,has been an ideological low tax Tory. Maybe some aren’t, but throw a dart in those protests, and you got a tax ideologue.

samwhyte.bsky.social•13 days ago

Like, he rightly cares a lot about agricultural labour rights and they've been eroded terribly, but so few actual farmers are gonna be impacted by this. Exactly the same people who cared about inheritance tax on stately homes.

samwhyte.bsky.social•13 days ago

Was really surprised to see an acquaintance change their avi to "support the farmers" before realising they stand to inherit a 3 bed in zone 2.

alherix.bsky.social•13 days ago

Someone pays for those gleaming tractors. They all look the same to me. Could they be from a dealer?

alherix.bsky.social•13 days ago

What rate ULEZ are they paying? These are not vehicles for roads in central London.

What about mass arrests for disrupting people? Imagine if an ambulance had to try and get anywhere.

Just apply same legislation as for Stop the Oil protests.

rosamundi.bsky.social•13 days ago

I did see an ambulance stuck in traffic because of this last night. The ambulance was able to use the bike lane to get through so I don't think any harm was caused. It also made cycling to the junction with the bike lane on Parliament Square far more dangerous than usual.

alherix.bsky.social•13 days ago

Really you have to see them? Were they stuck because of peaceful demonstrations? No, it is hypothetical.

Law should be the same. Especially as those tractors are dangerous vehicles on the central London roads

eleph.bsky.social•13 days ago

Yes - why are they not being arrested in droves.

rentorb.bsky.social•13 days ago

In reality much less than half what the rest of us pay. In an industry increasingly dominated by asset funds stashing cash in agriculture to avoid inheritance tax.

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