In the news

it's probably more useful to look at who would actually have enough hoarded personal wealth through farming to be liable to meet the IHT threshold.

The whole point is that there are some farms that will reach that threshold through the value of the land and machinery, but still aren't very profitable. Portraying that as "hoarded wealth" is deeply odd. But then you get round that by saying that if they can't afford the IHT then it's "mismanaged wealth" in which case they deserve to go under. Either way it's nasty, horrid, unfair, distasteful wealth (eurgh!) that's either hoarded (yuck!) or mismanaged (boo!) rather than, say, an asset that is difficult to make profit from and currently overvalued, but from which we benefit if it keeps running with some sort of continuity.

So yeah, I stand by my point that if farming businesses are so close to the edge they can't weather the impacts of IHT, then they certainly could not navigate the financial shock from other risks and are therefore unviable.

So the answer is to make them face both? The plan is to impose the certainty of IHT and then face all those other risks as well, and then blame them for not being able to weather both?

And none of this engages with the question what we actually want to happen in this sector? Do we want to make it harder to run a financially viable family-owned farm? Is that a sector that we want to shrink? If not, why are we doing this; if yes, why?

I have farmers all around me who have a million $ in assets, but they make very little money. Some years they do well, some they run a loss.
One guy had an old combine that was beyond repair and he needed a replacement. Cost was over $300k Canadian. Him and his wife both have full time jobs in town because the farm doesn’t generate enough money to survive.
They are constantly juggling debt and revenue.
Don’t judge all farmers because you see a few rich ones.
I am concerned that arable land is being lost to suburban sprawl. Most land in southern Ontario and the Fraser Valley has been lost. Now we have to pay inflated prices for imported produce. Ultimately the foreign producers might sell elsewhere and we get none.

CAD is worth roughly 0.5-0.6 GBP - how many farmers do you know with $2m in assets? (Ignoring that for the couple you mention the total would have to be closer to $4m realistically to trigger)

It’s worth mentioning that farming is a lifestyle business. I couldn’t imagine playing insolvency roulette every time I planted a crop but I would imagine it’s a knife edge for a lot of farmers. But they are choosing to do it.

Nationalise all farms. Food is as vital as electricity and water, they should all be nationalised

Isn't the underlying problem that farmland is just another investment?
Far from an expert in taxes or land stuff, but big parts of (former east) German farmland gets or got sold to the highest bidder.
Meaning Zurich re, big agro business or Chinese investors buy it and then lease it out.
And if you were crazy enough to think about starting something like a sustainable walnut farm (that's an example I once heard of) you'll never manage to find land you can afford.

And IHT is just crazy stuff here. Everyone pays 40%, but real wealth doesn't get taxed as it's tied in businesses, and if those families would pay their share jobs would inevitably be lost.
If you haven't put all of it in whatever suitable tax evasion forms anyway.

The future is big gov, no GM, pro biodiversity farming.

(As long as they dont call it fucking Great British Farms or some other bollocks)

F.G.B.F ?

Construction firm would be a limited company so appointing family to a senior position I would say is very typical.

Given this topic has taken over the news thread, is it now time for the forum’s farming experts to have their own thread to continue debating the topic?

A country you love so much Allison that you went bankrupt for not paying tax?

(Also add that we are where we are at least in part via the loud opinions from the likes of Pearson, Vine, Oakeshott, Hartley-Brewer etc)

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Never seen Jeremy Vine blamed for broken Britain before

The collectivisation of the Kulaks went great

Having Stalin decide you and everyone like you must die doesn't feel like something you did went particularly wrong

He’s played his part

Look up who removed IHT from farm land (thatcher and the Tories ) so the land value went up as the value was tax avoidance.

Pearson, Vine, Oakeshott, Hartley-Brewer

Celebrity GB News Come Dine With Me.

"The salmon mousse!"

Judging would be tough as all would serve bile as a starter

Can I suggest the menu from this (very good) bar type restaurant in Saltash

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One farmer said that he’d have frogmarched Farage off site https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/nov/20/farming-rally-organisers-exclude-nigel-farage-from-speaker-line-up

frogmarched

Farage

Nice

That reference... chef's kiss