Farm Inheritance Tax

[GarethM]

Just look at any newspaper, news outlet, abandon ship, sack staff, sell it off abroad and wait for government handouts.

 

The mind boggles at the inept attitude this government treats business, ready for government has worn itself out already on maybe day 2.

 

Just repeating it'll be ok whilst making the country and everyone in it bankrupt isn't going to end well for Mr Q Starmer.

[dan blocker]

On 05/11/2024 at 08:33, Peasgood said:

Dyson no doubt got into farming due to it being tax efficient for him but as far as I know his farms are very much working farms rather than just land being owned. A fair bit of what he does goes well beyond the basic farming stuff.

Beeswax farms if you are interested enough to look them up.

 

As far as farming in general goes I don't know why anyone does it from a business point of view, there are far easier ways to make a living. 

Most farms are proper “working farms”, yes, there are a few hobby farms or small holdings. I doubt if Dyson gets up at 5 every morning and milks cows day in, day out or ploughs into the night to get the job done or get the spuds out of the ground. He’s also probably not too bothered if he has 100 acres of spuds rot in the ground because the weathers been too wet to get them out? Farming is a game of poker - not knowing what the crop yield is likely to be because of the weather or disease, be hit with TB, avian flue and a whole host of other problems or worry how the hell the monthly bills are going to get paid? Also a lot of the advanced agg stuff he’s doing is bringing in lots of additional grants and if the experimental farming he’s doing is successful could make him many more millions? Would be interesting to see who actually owns Dysons farms? I bet it’s a company, offshore conglomerate or group of shadow company’s and not be eligible for the inheritance or “Death Tax” but take all the advantages of being agriculture?

[doobin]

It’s a tax on landowners, not farmers. 
 

A land tax of some form is needed otherwise all money goes into property rather than productivity (the thing which actually enriches a country and its people), and you end up with a massive class divide and then civil war. 
 

If it works as intended and land values fall, then far fewer genuine farmers should be eligible for it and new entrants might actually get a look in. At the moment it’s a closed shop, and the closed shop is very good at getting their paid peanuts foot soldiers to blindly shout their cause. 

[Mick Dempsey]

2 minutes ago, doobin said:

At the moment it’s a closed shop, and the closed shop is very good at getting their paid peanuts foot soldiers to blindly shout their cause. 

Very good point, and the first time it’s been made on here.

[sime42]

A Point of View - Tractors in Whitehall - BBC Sounds

WWW.BBC.CO.UK

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Michael Morpurgo on why the family farm remains vital to our lives in Britain today.

 

 

 

[pleasant]

Surely inheriting a farm is inheriting a business to support a family and pay tax into the system. Its not like me inheriting my parents property when I already have my own home and job. Ok I know i will have to pay a degree of inheritance tax which is a bummer, but i wont lose my job or my home because of it.

 

Putting inheritance tax in the way labour have to farm is taxing the tools of the job. No different to taxing the tools in the back of a plumbers van. No farm, no job....bonkers .

 

Then no other farmers would buy up other farms land for going over the allowance, so swathes of land will go unsold, go fallow, and then the government will procure it to build all these houses on. Cynical? Me?

Edited March 2 by pleasant

[doobin]

11 hours ago, pleasant said:

Surely inheriting a farm is inheriting a business to support a family and pay tax into the system. Its not like me inheriting my parents property when I already have my own home and job. Ok I know i will have to pay a degree of inheritance tax which is a bummer, but i wont lose my job or my home because of it.

 

Putting inheritance tax in the way labour have to farm is taxing the tools of the job. No different to taxing the tools in the back of a plumbers van. No farm, no job....bonkers .

 

Then no other farmers would buy up other farms land for going over the allowance, so swathes of land will go unsold, go fallow, and then the government will procure it to build all these houses on. Cynical? Me?

So a large groundworks firm passing from father to son (yard, diggers and dumpers etc, you know, tools of the trade) should be exempt from IHT also? 

 

Also, if you think it’s all to build houses… The government can already compulsorily purchase land for public infrastructure. If they had the will, this could be done for council housing, and you’d not need anything like the amounts of land you’re talking about either. 
 

 

 

[GarethM]

2 minutes ago, doobin said:

So a large groundworks firm passing from father to son (yard, diggers and dumpers etc, you know, tools of the trade) should be exempt from IHT also? 

No, a groundwork firm would own company assets mainly equipment and very little else.

 

There's little physical value in the firm other than the name, reputation and staff that could leave overnight.

 

A farm is primarily the land and it's buildings, think of it like a local butchers being the shop and fixtures passed down the family and survives because it's been almost unchanged for 60 years.

 

Sell the freezer there's no butchers, same applies to farms. Sell 20% and it's not viable, oh get a loan just makes it even more expensive and impractical.

[pleasant]

3 hours ago, GarethM said:

No, a groundwork firm would own company assets mainly equipment and very little else.

 

There's little physical value in the firm other than the name, reputation and staff that could leave overnight.

 

A farm is primarily the land and it's buildings, think of it like a local butchers being the shop and fixtures passed down the family and survives because it's been almost unchanged for 60 years.

 

Sell the freezer there's no butchers, same applies to farms. Sell 20% and it's not viable, oh get a loan just makes it even more expensive and impractical.

Correct. A groundworks business only use any land they have for storage of the plant they need to earn money. The land doesnt earn them money to be able to run their business, the plant does. A farm is exactly the opposite of that