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    Over half of farmers who gain from tax loophole have 'no involvement in farming'
    United Kingdom

    Over half of farmers who gain from tax loophole have ‘no involvement in farming’

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    12 Comments

    1. Farewell-Farewell on

      “Over half of farmers who gain from tax loophole have ‘no involvement in farming'” — Then they are not farmers.

      It’s actually quite easy to sort out and identify a person who:

      – Owns a farm, works the land and lives by it, with the intention of handing over to an heir when he/she dies, and

      – a person who has bought up a farm to avoid tax.

    2. Sluggybeef on

      Yeah, because it’s been designed so stupidly that it’s going to hurt actual farmers and protect investors. This is what farmers are protesting about.

      If like the government claims they want to protect family farms, stick a clawback clause on all active farmers.

      Also, this IHT affects all family businesses, not just farming it’s just with the APR relief too it’s going to hit most farms

    3. catsandscience242 on

      Farmers staged go slow protests on dual carriageways….

      Are those OK now?

      When are the media going to produce people who couldn’t get to visit dying relatives and laud people assaulting them to make them stop? Presumably we can expect to see them getting prison time for even thinking about? No?

    4. DarwinPaddled on

      I hate how “tax loophole” makes everyone think a certain way, that the farmers not paying inheritance tax are in the wrong instead of a government stealing from your inheritance. I am now living in a European country that doesnt have inheritance tax at all.

    5. TwoMarc on

      I only have sympathy for the farmers that voted to remain.

      This problem was caused by losing their EU subsidies more than anything to do with inheritance tax.

      Maybe I’m super left wing but I never avoid tax, I’m not even keen on dumping in my pension.

      Having said all that I’m willing to be educated… how reliant on farms are we as a population? If all farmers had to sell over the next 15 years would we have a food shortage? Can we import? Is that sustainable?

    6. fdgfdgfdgedfare on

      Thats what annoys me about Clarkson leading the charge – you watch the show and its locals like Caleb running the farm.

      I mean great it gives them work – but there are plenty of people like Caleb who work farms and will never own them due to people exploiting inheritance tax and bumping up land prices

    7. buntypieface on

      Sad to see that people are demonising farmers. We need farmers.

      We’re all being being used to divide and conquer by disagreeing with one another.

      Instead of the approach of ” why should they have that”, how about the approach of “i should have that too”?

      Keep the plebs arguing amongst themselves, that’s what’s being done here.

      I’m not a farmer.

      We need farmers folks, i really hope you understand this.

      Peace ✌️

    8. bluegoblin5 on

      To claim argiculutral relief for inheritance tax they had to demonstrate it was being used for agriculture. Evidence is then revieiwed and its granted, it has to be a working farm etc not a field. This is just misleading.

    9. hashman111 on

      They should give subsidies for farming equipment and fertilizer etc instead of tax loop holes

    10. muh-soggy-knee on

      Since the article cites 44% that’s the figure I will use.

      The counterpoint to the argument here is of course “44% of farmers will be affected by the changes that the government said would only affect a tiny handful of farmers and a multitude of land banking fat cats”

      I agree those fat cats should be gone after; aside from the fact that tax loopholes should be closed off as a simple first principles position they should also be gone after because their activities make farming itself more difficult due to inflated land prices. It’s a genuine problem that Labour have addressed and I support them in addressing it.

      However; this is a very very blunt tool to do it with.

      It’s analogous to a hostage situation. A fat cat is flanked front and back by farmers with guns in their backs, demanding to be allowed to continue to avoid tax. This policy shoots one of the farmers straight through the heart with a 50 cal and says “Yes ok that farmer is dead but the bullet also killed the fat cat and 50% of the farmers are unaffected!”

    11. Anonymous-Josh on

      Then they can sell it up and coming farmers with little land and bring down the prices as the loophole caused the increase in prices in the first place.

      As the rule of thumb goes if there’s a problem it probably goes back to Thatcher