Why are Farmers Complaining

Baldytyke88

Workers protesting because of a tax rise, that is all it is, most farmers vote Conservative, so they dislike Labour.

If a factory owner dies and his estate is taxed, they have various ways to avoid IT and so have the farmers, but the farmers pay less IT.

The_Green_Hornet

Maybe because farmers were told before the election that inheritance tax rules wouldn't change.

But then that was before the "financial black hole" which is being used as cover for all sorts of broken promises.

MattMattMattUK

Inheritance tax should be abolished entirely, as should SDLT. VAT should be raised (mostly paid by the well off), income tax should be raised, the tax free allowance should be reduced to £2,000 or less, Dividend tax should be reformed so that it is paid at a flat rate on all dividend issued , no matter who to (including foreign investors, which is what nearly every other major economy does)and there should be a lifetime limit in the amount that can be held in ISAs. Those changes would result in higher tax revenues for the state, they would involve me paying more tax personally, but as we need more revenue that would be a good thing. 

Albermarle

One point I do not get is that farmers constantly complain that costs are high, prices low and therefore they have very skinny margins .
Why then would you want your heirs to run such a difficult low margin business?

I suspect that farming is a more lucrative business than they make out, and they just like moaning a lot ( especially about the weather !) 

Asimovs_nightfall

The fairest thing to do would be to abolish inheritance - not inheritance tax!  That would reshape the economy and address the levels of inequality that ultimately affect lower income/revenue farmers just as everyone else.

MattMattMattUK

Albermarle said:

One point I do not get is that farmers constantly complain that costs are high, prices low and therefore they have very skinny margins .
Why then would you want your heirs to run such a difficult low margin business?

For many of the family farms it is not a business, it is a way of life, a culture, a calling, they do not want to make huge profits, just a fair and reasonable profit that means the business is sustainable, rather than than the current situation where food is too cheap and farming is becoming unsustainable. 

Albermarle said:

I suspect that farming is a more lucrative business than they make out, and they just like moaning a lot ( especially about the weather !) 

They moan about the weather because as we had a few years back, eight weeks of rain put the seed drilling back, which reduced the winter wheat yield by 30% which combined with the huge increase in fertiliser cots made many farms loss making. The supermarkets have spent decades screwing over farmers, the general public have been happy with that because it meant cheaper food, eventually something will break. 

eskbanker

The_Green_Hornet said:

Maybe because farmers were told before the election that inheritance tax rules wouldn't change.

Do you have an authoritative source for that?

The only reference to IHT in the Labour manifesto was "We will end the use of offshore trusts to avoid inheritance tax so that everyone who makes their home here in the UK pays their taxes here".

MattMattMattUK

Asimovs_nightfall said:

The fairest thing to do would be to abolish inheritance - not inheritance tax!

Ah yes, envy, a great way to make policy decisions. If I work hard all my life, if I pay my taxes, if I invest and accumulate from my taxed income I should get to decide where that goes at the end, not have it confiscated by the state. 

Asimovs_nightfall said:

That would reshape the economy and address the levels of inequality that ultimately affect lower income/revenue farmers just as everyone else.

It would reshape the economy by causing most of the best and brightest to leave, it would go against human nature as parents want to provide for their children, it would be an inherently bad policy on just about every level. 

Moonwolf

I would only allow people to pass it on once.

I would keep track of everything someone has inherited in their lifetime and then they can pass on any added value tax free but the value they inherited is taxed at 100%.

Thus, if you inherit a total of £500k in your lifetime and die with £1m you can pass on £500k tax free but the rest is taxed.  If you die with £450K then you can't pass on anything.

This would mean that anyone can pass on the wealth they generated with their own hands but not benefit they just happen to inherit.

There would be a bit of admin, but I don't see why this can't be managed with good IT.

Veteransaver

Because generally farmers don't want to pay any inheritance tax!
The struggling / poor farmers don't own their farms anyway, or own small ones.
The amount of wealth tied up in farming and is passed down through the generations without any inheritance tax is a huge loophole not available to non farmers