Farmers will not be able to afford the inheritance tax changes - Yorkshire Post Letters

With response to Paul Richardson’s letter of November 30. The farmers’ plight over APR and BPR has been highlighted because of the speed and efficiency with which it was intentionally drawn to the Government’s and public attention.

Although the troubles of other family businesses had not gone unnoticed, they could not be drawn in time to the protests of the 19th in London. So, the organisers of that event have arranged a conference at the Palladium courtesy of Sir Andrew Loyd Webber December 16 to focus on all other than farming.

As regards George Mitchell and Geoffrey Brooking and their assumption of farmers' wealth. Farmers vote for change the same as all others, Brexit and Labour, and a broad brush does not paint all in a community.

Only the richest 4 per cent of people pay IHT, but 75 per cent of family farms will pay this over a generation and will play the game of Russian Roulette every day until they have to pay.

All single farmers over 100 acres, with an income of approx £10,000 will pay. Couples with over 200 acres and an income of approx £20,000 will pay, from an income that cannot pay the tax due, even over 10 years, would these two contributors take a 10 year salary cut to pay this tax.

The soils of Britain produce food for the populations but have no financial value to the farmer other than the food produced. Do the public want money from the tax or food to put on their plates?

After all, land values were created by a previous Governments law and this Government wants to take a slice of this artificial inflated value with no relevance to the land's food productive value.

When land is sold to pay this tax on false values, it will be sold to other farmers, e.g. for a net zero cause, to wash away flight carbon so everyone can keep flying on holiday and the like, by big companies who will never pay any IHT.

If a farmer sells his soils/land, he like all others has to pay CGT and in the event of selling to pay the IHT, must pay his CGT first. And so, pays more than the 20 per cent quoted. This subject is too diverse to educate the non-farmers amongst us in a letter or five minutes. But it is a tax of envy and ideology.