Originally Posted by
Ollie the Optimist
The value of the land and income generated from it are two completely different things. The amount of people saying “oh just sell some land then to pay for the tax” is maddening. Who would buy a small amount of land other than to build houses potentially meaning our farming land decreases and we become more reliant on food production overseas.
If you have a farm worth in this example of 3.5 million but only generates an income of say 50k a year, if you then sell land to pay the tax, you further reduce the land available to make an income so lower your income. They could of course sell up but the only people who will likely buy are the already large farms such as James Dyson or private equity funds in the city, both of which I think labour want to avoid gaining more land.
One labour minister yesterday (I think it could even have been cabinet minister for farming) said that this would mean more young people could buy farms and realise their dream of being a farmer. Young people can’t afford a 1 bed flat in zone 6, where the fuck are they going to get several million to buy a farm? If they have that, again I don’t those are the people labour want to own farms.
If their policy was to tax those who bought farms to avoid IHT such as Clarkson (even though he has done a huge amount of good for farmers), they could have shaped a policy on that basis, probably along the lines of that if farming if your main source of income, it’s exempt from IHT. The likes of clarkson & Dyson wouldn’t be able to argue farming is their main source of income and most would probably support that policy. You can then go slightly further and say that if the children sell the farm in a certain period of time after death, say 10 years, then IHT is liable.
It is also not just land that is included in the value for IHT purposes, it is the crops in the field, the seeds/fertalisers purchased to run the farm for that year and even animals. One farmer on news yesterday said he has around 3 million in cattle before the land etc. he would be liable yet dairy farmers make fuck all, were do you think they will find tens of thousands for this tax? They wont, they’ll become even more unprofitable and we’ll lose valuable farms to big corporations or the wealthiest land owners.