“Some 56% of farmland bought in 2023 was sold to landowners who were not working farmers. The revenue per acre is too low to warrant the purchase, unless you are extremely wealthy and are avoiding inheritance tax”
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56% not farmers! That’s bound to undermine food security. Should be rules applied to avoid absentee landlords and tax avoiders. Land reform is required.
Is it feasible to only apply the cap on land that has been purchased, not land that has been inherited in the first place? Or if a mix of inherited and purchased land, 70% must have been inherited? This way you could protect future generations of farmers and tax the rich purchasing for tax avoidance
Exactly. That's what Labour are trying to fix. I hope ordinary farmers are starting to catch on they've been wound up by the tax avoiders against their own best interest.
How is this going to help? It would have been more sensible to tax heavily on sale so speculative purchase would end. Don’t tax working farms whose plans stretch years ahead.
The media would do well to portray these facts. As much as they wish to play the Tory line, in towns, particularly Northern towns, sentiment is turning hard against farmers, many who play no part in this drama. Collateral damage, but acceptable to Dyson and Co.
but everyone remember please Tenant farmers, who don't own the land but who are at the very ❤️of our rural economy managing a 1/3 of all farmland often for little recompense or thanks
The minute you utter the words avoiding inheritance tax... you lose every argument
No one person should ever pay this insane tax!!! A double triple and sometimes quadruple tax. To give to a government which squanders it with its corruption
Thatcher asset stripped the state. The last Tory govt. ran out of working class folks to asset strip & started on the middle classes. Their plan is to have 99% of the wealth of the UK completely tied up in the Grand Caymans while we all fight each other for the remaining 1%.
Not 1 mention of Tenant farmers who are at the❤️of our rural economy managing a 1/3 of all farmland
While there is an indirect deleterious threat 2Tenant farmers whose landlords r often large Estates, who when planning future IHT, may consider selling off or taking back tenanted land, there cld B
there cld be gains, where if Govt policy cld encourage non-farming buyers to offer tenancies, then more young skillled & experienced farmers cld gain access to new farms & aided by good ELMs, provide better stewardship of our lands water & soils
It's obvious by the outrage of many of the 46% of farmers that they relished the increase in the value of their land, just so that they could benefit from their privileged tax position.
The debate has been framed completely wrong. A lot of people complaining about the inheritance tax rise, will then go out and buy chicken from Thailand, lamb from New Zealand and sugar snap peas from Guatemala. The starting point in supporting farmers has to be buying seasonal British produce
What I’m not clear about is, if they are not farming the land, what are they doing with it? Renting it to tenants? Rearing pheasants for the shoot? Rewilding?
Move along people nothing to see here! Not a repeat of the worst amongst the gentry like Viscount Rothermere manipulating the public against each other while they laugh all the way to the bank, & catch REAL Farmers they commited economic genocide against, trapped between Tankies & Tories yet again!🤷🏻♂️
How about selling farming land for farming, I mean actually farming only rather than hitting farmers once again? Excuse my ignorance as I'm not a farmer but talking to them might help???
APR needs some reform but data shows the intro of APR in '92 had relatively little effect on land prices.
The financial crash in '08 caused a jump (safe haven for capital).
Comp for non ag uses also a big factor:development, solar, C offsetting schemes, lifestyle buyers.
CGT roll over also a factor
But what about the working farmers whose revenue per acre will be too low to fund the inheritance tax?
Tax the non-farming landowners when they sell the land they inherited free of tax.
I dont actually think that matters. I think farmers shd pay IHT like everyone else. All that would happen is the wealthy would farm 1 field and use that to avoid IHT.
Except in reality most farmers don’t have a lot of income, especially since leaving the EU. And a majority will be unaffected so why stress them out further.
Everything is tied up in the farm, do you expect them to sell their place of employment to pay a tax bill because their parent died?
It happens in every other business regardless of income.
The tax avoidance loophole pushes up the price of agricultural land, making it harder for existing small farms to expand or for new farms to be created...
Those farmers in their 80s hanging on to their farms complaining about how much tax their children will face should sack their financial advisors who long ago failed to advise them to pass on their businesses. The 7-year rule would mean a zero tax bill, just like everyone else.
Of course, but these are also the people who if they willingly go to a dr they are probably close to death. The farms they inherited weren’t the businesses they are now.
I doubt they would have done it even if their advisors suggested it.
« It’s just not how it’s done »
Already one of the highest occupational suicide rates because of the long hours, loneliness and financial struggle. You think they can afford tax advisors? Do you know any real farmers?
The Tories have done more damage than anyone to farmers and farming over the past 50 years. Yet the farmers keep voting for them. Where were they demonstrating on our streets with Clarkson the past 14 years when they were in power?
It’s not just supermarkets it the global market.
But I agree that supermarkets should be willing to take a hit in their own profits in order to pay farmers properly for their crops.
Or the UK goes back to market shopping and pays a bit more for better food.
I agree with both of you. But this has nothing to do with IHT. I would welcome an actual debate about food production, food prices and what we pay our farmers. But unfortunately any conversation about those v real issues hv been drowned out by noisy celebrities and their IHT.
Cracking down on the wealthy tax avoiders not only makes more agricultural land available at an affordable price, but a drop in the value of land means that fewer farmers would have to pay inheritance tax.
This reminds me of something I noticed taking the train from London towards the Bristol area. You can try this, it's a fun game. Try and spot a field that is actually part of a farm that produces actual food. A private field doth not a farm make. IMO we need a distinction.
Not my area of expertise, but the grassy ones with 1 horse in for example? I think my point is that somehow there should be a distinction between being a landowner and an actual farmer. Perhaps there is already. This is just my facile tuppenceworth.
Thats probably a good example which I didn’t think of, but fields of grass can be growing hay for animals in the food chain, or directly feeding animals on rotation. But I agree with your principal point.
The trouble is that the current tax strategy will be bypassed by the farms being stuck into trust or bought by corporations.
The tax scheme should mean that the only groups that can own large areas of land are workers cooperatives. Bringing land back to the people and away from the City of London.
Is it beyond the wit of HM Treasury to decide which ‘farms’ are working and which are not. If every acre is not being farmed and producing food then it is not a working farm. Non producing ‘farms’ incur full inheritance tax!
Just a random inane thought can't we as ppl with some sort of go-fund buy these places instead 🤔 or I'm assuming the others would be screaming communism
Comments
Trump's China trade war gutted farmers during his first admin.
They just reelected him.
but everyone remember please Tenant farmers, who don't own the land but who are at the very ❤️of our rural economy managing a 1/3 of all farmland often for little recompense or thanks
btw
here's a more obliging land owner...
https://bsky.app/profile/stog.bsky.social/post/3lbap7nxg5v23
No one person should ever pay this insane tax!!! A double triple and sometimes quadruple tax. To give to a government which squanders it with its corruption
Leave the farmers alone
Free markets are free from rent seeking, private monopolies & exploitation
While there is an indirect deleterious threat 2Tenant farmers whose landlords r often large Estates, who when planning future IHT, may consider selling off or taking back tenanted land, there cld B
https://bsky.app/profile/stog.bsky.social/post/3lccx7o63gs2t
The financial crash in '08 caused a jump (safe haven for capital).
Comp for non ag uses also a big factor:development, solar, C offsetting schemes, lifestyle buyers.
CGT roll over also a factor
Tax the non-farming landowners when they sell the land they inherited free of tax.
There must be a way to protect farmers but tax landowners bon land as they are taxed on mansions
Everything is tied up in the farm, do you expect them to sell their place of employment to pay a tax bill because their parent died?
The tax avoidance loophole pushes up the price of agricultural land, making it harder for existing small farms to expand or for new farms to be created...
We need to make farming more profitable, not keep tax avoidance loopholes for multi-millionaires and billionaires.
I doubt they would have done it even if their advisors suggested it.
« It’s just not how it’s done »
Perhaps we need legislation to stop supermarkets squeezing so much profit out of farming to the point that it becomes unviable.
But I agree that supermarkets should be willing to take a hit in their own profits in order to pay farmers properly for their crops.
Or the UK goes back to market shopping and pays a bit more for better food.
Spectacular.
The tax scheme should mean that the only groups that can own large areas of land are workers cooperatives. Bringing land back to the people and away from the City of London.
I wonder why
Sudden change to 'its all about farming', when they were viewed just like every other business- which they had demonstrated- they were!
Hoist on their own petard?
My sympathy meter remains stationary.
It’s not like they go down the pub (or, more likely their Club) and brag about how many empty fields and miles of drystone wall they own!
Or do they?
It's only taxable when it's sold.