Farmers ignore tractor ban and bring inheritance tax protest to Westminster
https://news.sky.com/story/farmers-ignore-tractor-ban-and-bring-inheritance-tax-protest-to-westminster-13475555
Posted by topotaul
Farmers ignore tractor ban and bring inheritance tax protest to Westminster
https://news.sky.com/story/farmers-ignore-tractor-ban-and-bring-inheritance-tax-protest-to-westminster-13475555
Posted by topotaul
19 Comments
If you offered most people the chance to quit their job and become a millionaire overnight they’d bite your hand off.
That’s the choice these farmers are facing when they complain they might have to sell their land to pay the tax. Farmers are a privileged class, and maybe that’s fine but we should at least be honest about it
“farmers” or wealthy landowners who bought farmland to avoid IHT now protesting that the loop hole is being closed
But agree that it needs to change, as it hurts real farmers too, but the intention is good to hit the right people
reality being if people were going to sell the land they could but some people actually take pride in being farmers and want to continue being farmers, and we shouldnt be hurting these people.
It’s hereditary wealth at the end of the day, landed gentry but there is work involved to realise it. It should be taxable like anyone else’s inheritance.
The argument of “well who will grow the food if they can’t inherit tax free then?” argument has worn thin with me too. Imagine the owner of a logistics firm arguing they should be able to pass on their company tax-free because no lorry drivers, no food… You can apply their rhetoric to so many examples.
Entitled, ignorant pricks.
They claim that us non-farmers just don’t understand country ways. They demand that they not be treated like everyone else because of the selfless sacrifices they make, toiling in penury to keep the heart of the nation pumping.
Well no. It is they, in their little rural bubble, who don’t understand the country they live in. Life is tough for everyone. They are not heroes. They have no God-given right to anoint themselves and their descendants to be forever tax exempt guardians of the land.
They are entitled, wealthy land owners who bitched and moaned so much when the Brexit they voted for stopped them exploiting cheap foreign labour, that special rules were made to let them keep doing so. A Brexit, by the way, they voted for in the hope of increasing their own profits by raising food prices to us tax payers.
They claim to be custodians of the countryside, but will maximize profits by polluting our rivers, chopping down our hedgerows, culling our badgers and only doing just enough to trouser the juicy subsidies.
They will flog their precious land at inflated prices to tax dodging millionaires/TV presenters for easy profits, but heaven forbid selling some to pay their fair share of tax.
If you can’t make enough money from your millions of pounds of assets to pay your taxes – sell them. Put the money in the bank and live comfortably off the income. Let someone else have a go at using the land productively.
did we not pass draconian anti protest laws recently to stop this very thing.
I dont agree with the laws, but if they are applied to climate/palestinian support protestors, then they should be applied equally to farmers.
arrest them, lock them up for 2 years like the JSO lot.
All the people congratulating the tax increase on farmers care more about bitterness than food security.
Thus is one of those things we will have to wait and see on, but from within the industry looking at it, its going to completely cripple a lot of the arable farms.
This IHT relief was brough in in the 70s because it was crippling smaller family farms that couldn’t afford to carry on.
Were now one of the only countries to have no inheritance protections on farmland, could be a bumpy few years for agriculture.
Hopefully enough fines are going to be issued to cover the costs of the police time spent on the pricks.
i do wonder if people are just bots, happy to kill british farming off or if they realise the policy needs adjusting so that it wont hit farmers but will hit IHT loophole folks
No money to pay tax but can afford massively expensive transporters to get their very very expensive tractors into London.
None of these particular farmers are impoverished carrot crunchers.
So many people on here really don’t get why farmers are so angry. The problem is that land prices are hyper inflated, so most commercial farms are worth a few million pounds, yet only turn annual profits of around £50-70000, despite having to support multiple people.
The problem lies when a farmer dies, their child simply cannot afford to pay hundreds of thousands in tax, and is forced to sell the farm. The only people who can afford to buy the farm are the ultra wealthy, therefore more land is going to end up in the hands of the rich.
A simple solution would be, you don’t pay inheritance tax unless you sell the farm. If you take ownership and continue to operate it, you shouldn’t have to pay the tax. This would close the loophole of people buying farms to give to their children, who then sell it, therefore avoiding inheritance tax
Hopefully they will be treated the same way the policy treat climate protesters. But I doubt it.
Ooh just pay your taxes like the rest of us. You’re not even being asked to do that by this government!
Farmer’s never think the rules apply to themselves though, so this tracks.
I grew up on a farm. No way would I have time to drive a tractor to Whitehall and make a nuisance of myself protesting something that targets wealthy landowners. That’s who I think we’re dealing with here, despite the likes of Jeremy Clarkson and their propaganda.
Presumably they’ll be dealt with in the same way as the Just Stop Oil protestors?….
What’s stopping them making their farm “Smith and Son/Daughter”, and gifting half now rather than waiting until they die? If they’re that keen to pass on the farm why not do it now?
Equally, are these farmers creating a closed shop by preventing people who wish to farm but do not have farming parents from getting started? A farmworker who has worked for a farmer for years will find getting their own land difficult.
When we have lost the ability to grow food domestically and price skyrocket next time there’s a bad harvest, think of the tax revenues raised. Those kulaks deserved it!
So I assume they will be getting long prison sentences?