FEATURE Farmers and inheritance tax
MISSING THE POINT
What Unite farmworkers think are the real issues farmers should be protesting about
Tweed and tractors filled Whitehall last November, as farmers, celebrity supporters and bandwagon-hopping politicians gathered to march against changes to inheritance tax.
In its first budget, the Labour government announced that farmers would come into line with the rest of the country and pay the tax for the first time since 1992.
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I think [the protest] misses the point. Inheritance tax only applies if the farmer is actually farming, and hasn’t handed the farm over to their descendants
John Burbidge, Unite Tolpuddle branch chair
Though the march received blanket coverage on the news, Unite farmworkers say the campaigners’ message “misses the point” and many are being “divisive”.
Talking about the protests, Unite Tolpuddle branch chair John Burbidge said, “I think it misses the point. Inheritance tax only applies if the farmer is actually farming, and hasn’t handed the farm over to their descendants.
“Many of the protesters were assuming this applies to a situation where the family farm just pays inheritance tax because their parents die. It only applies if they are actually farming at the time.”
Farmland has been exempt from inheritance tax since 1992, thanks to agricultural property relief (APR), which reduced the amount of tax farmers and landowners must pay
16 uniteLANDWORKER Winter 2024
when farmland is passed to the next generation.
Labour’s budget changed that.
The government says that the changes are needed and that, “The latest figures show that the top 7 per cent (the largest 117 claims) account for 40 per cent of the total value of agricultural property relief. This costs the taxpayer £219m. The top 2 per cent of claims (37 claims) account for 22 per cent of agricultural property relief, costing £119m.”
“It is not fair for a very small number of claimants each year to claim such a significant amount of relief,” adds John, “when this money could better be used to fund our public services.”
One problem is the huge amount of disinformation and unreliable figures being thrown around.
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