Europa Posted on 2024-11-20 11:09:00

After the French, it's the turn of the British - Thousands of farmers in protest against the increase in inheritance tax!

From Edel Strazimiri

After the French, it's the turn of the British - Thousands of farmers in

Thousands of UK farmers have gathered outside Parliament to protest the government's decision to increase inheritance tax in its latest budget. The decision would see the end of a tax break dating back to the 1990s that exempts agricultural property from tax.

This means that from April 2026, farms worth more than £1m (€1,197m) will face a 20% tax when the owner dies and they are passed on to the next generation. British farmers say such an increase will deal a "hammer blow" to family farms which are already struggling from the impact of climate change, global volatility and the upheaval caused by Brexit.

The last decade has been a turbulent one for farmers. Many British farmers supported Brexit as a chance to get out of the EU's complex and much-criticised common agricultural policy. Since then, the UK has introduced changes such as paying farmers to restore nature and promote biodiversity, as well as food production.

But many feel they have been let down by previous Conservative governments, as well as the Starmer Labor administration, with delays caused by bureaucratic issues and a lack of subsidies to keep up with inflation and new trade deals with countries including Australia and New Zealand. , who have opened the door. to free imports.

Many believe the Labor government's tax overhaul, part of a bid to raise billions of pounds to fund public services, is the last straw.

Starmer's centre-left government says the "vast majority" of farms, around 75%, will not have to pay inheritance tax and various loopholes mean a farming couple could pass on an estate worth up to £3m £ (€3.591 million). to their children tax-free. The 20% tax is half the 40% inheritance tax payable on land and other property in the UK.

Starmer's spokeswoman Camilla Marshall said the tax decision had been "difficult" but was not being reconsidered. Supporters of the tax say it will recoup money from wealthy people who bought farmland as an investment, driving up the cost of farmland.

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