MPs Why didn't Treasury abolish business rollover relief rather than put inheritance tax on farmers?

2 months ago
127

Five suggestions to Save British Farming:
1. set up a charitable fund to pay off distressed farmers' inheritance bills;
2. institute a chain of collectively owned farm shops in every market town to act as a mini supermarket for seasonal produce;
3. demand boycotts of supermarkets and/or products where price fixing is taking place, robbing farmers;
4. blockade factory farms and mass mechanised greenhouses owned by front companies for private equity firms;
5. set up a direct action group to occupy and obstruct individuals and businesses which are destroying UK family farming.
How's that for a start. Please add your own suggestions in the comments below.
www.tlio.org.uk

Jeremy Moody, secretary and adviser at Central Association for Agricultural Valuers, added that the tax changes would not discourage companies from snapping-up farmland, adding: “It is only individuals who die.”

UK farmers are being ‘squeezed out’ of agricultural land market by hedge funds and a millionaires’ tax scam
https://tlio.org.uk/uk-farmers-are-being-squeezed-out-of-agricultural-land-market-by-hedge-funds-and-a-millionaires-tax-scam/

Over half of farmers who gain from tax loophole have 'no involvement in farming in any way'
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/over-half-farmers-who-gain-34294829

Hundreds of farmers in tractors descended on Westminster to protest, while MPs heard less than half of estates claiming agricultural relief made any income from farming in five yearsFarmers in tractors staged another protest over the government’s inheritance tax changes - despite fresh claims large landowners are the big winners from current rules.Hundreds descended on London, with go-slow demonstrations on dual carriageways in a number of other places. It marked a second day of action in the wake of Rachel Reeves’s Budget announcement that farms worth more than £1million will pay 20% inheritance tax from 2026. Farmers called the change “another kick in the teeth”, while some backed cutting off food supplies in the new year as “wake up call”.It came as MPs scrutinising the shake-up heard more than half those claiming a lucrative tax break to avoid death duties have “no involvement in farming in any way”.The 20% inheritance tax rate - half that for everyone else - replaces two types of relief worth up to 100%.Dr Arun Advani, director of Centre for the Analysis of Taxation, told the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee: “Less than half of the estates who are claiming agricultural relief have any income from farming anywhere in the five years before death."About 44% of the claims are from people you would think of as farmers.” The others, he said, are “a mix of people who own a house and some pony paddocks or who own land and let it out to a lot of people but are not involved in any farming in any way.”The Mirror revealed this month how a quarter of all England’s farmland belongs to just 2,500 owners. The highly respected Institute for Fiscal Studies says those paying more tax under the changes would be heavily concentrated among large wealthy landowners.But Dr Advani warned, at 20%, the inheritance tax rate still made it attractive for the wealthy to buy up agricultural land, pushing up prices for genuine smaller family farmers who want to work the land themselves.Jeremy Moody, secretary and adviser at Central Association for Agricultural Valuers, added that the tax changes would not discourage companies from snapping-up farmland, adding: “It is only individuals who die.”Tom Bradshaw, president of the National Farmers’ Union, claimed Ms Reeves had refused to meet. He told the committee: “We have written to the Prime Minister asking for a pause to consult.” Mr Bradshaw became emotional at one stage as he warned some ill or older farmers may take their own lives to avoid their estates being hit with inheritance tax.Country Land and Business Association claims 70,000 farms could be affected annually but the government puts it at just 500.Tractors hocking their horns drove around Westminster’s Parliament Square, many decorated with signs that read: “No farmers, no food” and “Save British Farming”.Will Elliott, 50, drove his tractor three hours from his farm near Grafham, near Guildford in Surrey, to attend the protest. He said: “The industry is already down on its knees and this is just another kick in the teeth.”

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