[News] Farmers

Ike and Tina Burner said:

This policy won't help with this in any way. The small parcels of land that will be sold off to cover the tax will not be big enough for any realistic commercial farm to exist on. They'll more likely fall out of farming use. The fact this argument is being trotted out shows a level of ignorance amongst those defending the tax.

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nicko31 said:

Maybe the bigger land owners, East Anglia was covered with Vote Leave posters back in 2016

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Half Time Pies said:

I was talking to the manager of a large farm a couple of months ago, he was telling me that the value of farmland had increased from £2000 an acre in the early 2000's to nearly £12,000 an acre in 2024. This had left his boss an extremely rich person but the problem was that the productive capacity of the farmland was now extremely low when compared with the value of farmland. Farmland should produce an economic return that is relatable to its value and the return on the capital employed, but this is now completely out of kilter. Buying farmland doesn't make economic sense based in the returns that you get, yet there is no shortage of buyers and many of them - 56% in 2023 were non-farmers (https://farming.co.uk/news/strutt--...t-more-than-half-of-farms-and-estates-in-2023). Now it doesn't take a genius to work out what's been causing all these non farming investors to pile in over the past 20 years, the inheritance tax loop-hole that buying farmland affords! Surely It therefore makes perfect sense for the government to shut this loophole and to stop the transfer of land from farmers to investors who are buying it purely as a financial instrument that allows them to minimise their taxes.

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Weststander said:

Farmers would've voted in different ways. It's mentioned in a spiteful, not cerebral, way in these recent discussions about IHT. In the same way that 2.38m pensioners should be cold this winter because more of the older demographic voted for Brexit, payback,

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dazzer6666 said:

Had a long chat with one of my old schoolmates at the weekend - her and her husband are in the process of giving up their (pig) farm. They simply can’t make it pay any more - meat prices continually squeezed by the markets, costs rising, regulation strangling them etc etc. Actively encouraged their kids away from it as they could see what was coming. Another mate who runs a chicken farm (he started when we were at school) is being absolutely stifled by regulation too and is close to packing it in.

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ROSM said:

And this is the issue - there is so much that cause issues to farmers that I am surprised this is the hill they are now fighting on.

The irony is that the 40bn black hole is aligned to the 40bn a year that is now estimated to have been lost due to Brexit (pretty much as forecast by Osborne and Mark carney back in 2015/16)

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Half Time Pies said:

I was talking to the manager of a large farm a couple of months ago, he was telling me that the value of farmland had increased from £2000 an acre in the early 2000's to nearly £12,000 an acre in 2024. This had left his boss an extremely rich person but the problem was that the productive capacity of the farmland was now extremely low when compared with the value of farmland. Farmland should produce an economic return that is relatable to its value and the return on the capital employed, but this is now completely out of kilter. Buying farmland doesn't make economic sense based in the returns that you get, yet there is no shortage of buyers and many of them - 56% in 2023 were non-farmers (https://farming.co.uk/news/strutt--...t-more-than-half-of-farms-and-estates-in-2023). Now it doesn't take a genius to work out what's been causing all these non farming investors to pile in over the past 20 years, the inheritance tax loop-hole that buying farmland affords! Surely It therefore makes perfect sense for the government to shut this loophole and to stop the transfer of land from farmers to investors who are buying it purely as a financial instrument that allows them to minimise their taxes.

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Harry Wilson's tackle said:

Nicky Campbell's phone-in this morning is on farming.

There is a bus load of farmers on their way to London to protest against the introduction of some inheritance tax for farmers.

Crikey, what an entitled bunch.

They seem to have lived a simple life, with 'very little income' (some saying a few tens of thousands of pounds profit a year), but if their farm is worth more than three million pounds then, as a married couple, they will be liable to 20% inheritance tax (half what you and I pay), with this change coming in a couple of years, if they 'do nothing' to mitigate against the change.

Apparently farming is 'not a commercial business'. This means it is some sort of vocation, with little reward, that is offset by not having to think about anything, such as investment, saving, pensions and money in general.

And it's not fair.

Well, diddums.

A caller has pointed out that all that is needed is planning, but the farmers seem to think they shouldn't have to plan or think. OK, mates.

Final bleat: 'the government are taking away our way of life'. What did I do with that small onion I had in my pocket?

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abc said:

What a load of uninformed twaddle!

The value of a farm has nothing to do with the earning capacity and if it is passed down through generations its value is essentially meaningless. The average return on capital in farming is less than 1%. There is no other industry that could survive on that but family farms do because they work crazy hours and are prepared to earn very little. We take advantage of that by demanding cheap food, often at a level below the cost of production. Farming has the highest fatality rate of any industry partly due to excessive tiredness from working hours that would be illegal elsewhere in the economy. Also the highest suicide rate - but DIDDUMS to that!

No one will be able to inherit the family farm and afford to pay the IHT. The income is just not there. So the land will be sold but will not be purchased by another farmer as it is impossible to buy land and farm it profitably. eg An acre of arable land is worth c.£12000. That acre will deliver c.£600 of total wheat output (ie before all growing and business costs are deducted). Do the maths. So the land is lost to food production - where is your onion going to come from?!

But the demos are not just about IHT but this has been the final straw for an industry that has been hammered by successive governments, is seriously struggling to survive (unless you are the likes of dyson or Goodwood estates) and yet we all need to eat!

There are perhaps many people or even professions that you could accuse of being entitled - farmers are certainly not one of them

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ROSM said:

And this is the issue - there is so much that cause issues to farmers that I am surprised this is the hill they are now fighting on.

The irony is that the 40bn black hole is aligned to the 40bn a year that is now estimated to have been lost due to Brexit (pretty much as forecast by Osborne and Mark carney back in 2015/16)

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dazzer6666 said:

I suggested earlier it's the straw that's broken the camel's back - I guess all of the other issues are a piecemeal collection that combined (over many years) have made life increasingly difficult, but this is a new, headline change by a new government so presents an opportunity to kick up a fuss.

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South Stand Bonfire said:

I think on the one hand the Inheritance tax policy could have been better communicated. On the other hand, a group that claims to be impoverished - and I am sure there are some that do need support and the retail industry has shafted a lot of them over the years - but has Jeremy Clarkson as their celebrity spokesperson, may have difficulty acquiring the nation's sympathy.

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dejavuatbtn said:

It’ll just reduce our own self sustainability and open up the greenbelt to expensive housing development. Winners, the corporations, losers the country and its inhabitants.
This is bordering on Truss thinking.

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ROSM said:

Agree totally. The question is, now this change has been announced, will people like Clarkson look to offload their land. Will prices return to their more natural trajectory and if so, if either or both happen, will this reduce the numbers who will be subject to IHT?

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dazzer6666 said:

Should certainly impact agricultural land values...............if there's no longer a tax advantage then the wealthy aren't going to be buying farms (and will presumably be selling, although not sure there will be many buyers around). Probably won't impact IHT much either way as if the numbers are to be believed very few were going to be caught anyway Maybe it's a cunning plan - close the tax loophole, get the land returned to real farmers and then exempt them from IHT again............

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Butch Willykins said:

" I’ve seen the big-eared boys on farms"

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Harry Wilson's tackle said:

Perhaps if farmers hadn't so overwhelmingly voted to leave the EU (and thereby kiss goodbye to all their subsidies) they'd have less to worry about

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jcdenton08 said:

You’re a big posh sod with plums in your mouth.

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