You are reading a single comment by @lynx and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
London Fixed Gear and Single-Speed is a community of predominantly fixed gear and single-speed cyclists in and around London, UK.
This site is supported almost exclusively by donations. Please consider donating a small amount regularly.
lynx
Agree that this is bad policy. Land prices have soared, currently nearly 10k per acre if you're anywhere down south. You probably need somewhere near 500 acres to make a reasonable living, so do the maths.
If farmers have to sell off some of that land to pay for their IHT bill, it's very likely to be bought by a wealthy non-farmer wanting to build a lovely huge house, further taking land out of farming.
Part of the outrage is how little time people have before the new rules apply. Older farmers who had been preparing to give the farm to one of their children feel like they've had the rug pulled out from under them and now have to desperately try to replan everything pretty quickly.
I empathise with their frustration.
FWIW, I agree with raising more tax via IHT. I think the government have got their thresholds wrong, though. I think they're accidentally going to have an impact on family farms rather than the massive landowners I think they should be targeting.