UK Politics General Discussion

[jon81uk]

Farmers are literally saying they will go out of business, are you saying they are all liars? There was a guy on TV earlier his farm is worth 7 million roughly. Sounds alot but they have not made profit for the last 3 years.

Then they need to sell their product for a higher price, or diversify the business to make money. That's nothing to do with paying tax on your assets when you die.

What if the land they owned was a loss-making theme park? Or a stately home?

 

[rob666]

Farmers are literally saying they will go out of business,

I am literally saying that very few will...
We all live by the same rules.
Even the land owning people.
Tenant farmers don't seem to be complaining.

Discussing this with my mid morning punter, as middle of the road as they come.
He knows dozens of farmers locally, but he doesn't know a poor one.
He also thinks Clarkson is a wise fool ducking his taxes, and we should all be in the same boat.
I agree.
Landowners should not be a special case.

 

[Benzin]

How would inheritance tax affect current farming when the example's family would only have to pay the approx £1.4m after their death. If they don't change the deed to said land 7 years prior to their passing in the first place. And that's assuming the value of the land doesn't change as well.

Don't tax 4x4s and fertiliser then the complaints of weather making things harder to farm will get more and more. Cos climate change.

The country's money pit has to be filled up somehow. And the asset rich are kicking up a fuss because it's them being picked on for once. Maybe supermarkets should be forced to work far more closely with farms and offer appropriate value for their work if the problem is a lack of profit. But then industry generally has that issue regardless of what you are producing. And usually if you're not making a profit you tend to change how your company operates, streamline it (depending on situation) or sell up and put your feet up.

 

[Dave]

Farmers are literally saying they will go out of business, are you saying they are all liars? There was a guy on TV earlier his farm is worth 7 million roughly. Sounds alot but they have not made profit for the last 3 years. The inheritance tax would send them under. Add in taxes on 4x4s and fertilizer tax why the hell would anyone do this job. Long hours, minimal profit, poor mental health, left think your a bunch of grifters and everyone else seems quite happy to have most of our food imported.

There are also small farmers saying this will benefit them (example: https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/24714397.opinion-inheritance-tax-changes-positive-farms/

Fact is the ones screaming are mostly the tax avoiders. I’m certain there may be the odd farm not tax avoiding that might get a small tax bill to pay over 10 years but I doubt it will be significant.

Fact is last year 40% of farms purchased where bought by investors, not farmers, to avoid tax. So this land isn’t producing food anyway, if anything this will stop land being soaked up as tax assets and actually used for farming.

 

[GooseOnTheLoose]

In similar news, few retailers are kicking up a fuss about the tax rises. Ironic for Amazon especially. But again, given their profits are in the millions, the sympathy for the companies is very much lacking. Oh no it'll have to be a profit of £2.5m p/a rather than £3m, won't someone please think of the shareholders.

It's worth noting that Amazon doesn't make a profit on shopping. They do make a profit on Marketplace, which is other people selling via them (so no real impact there). Primarily, Amazon's profit centre is Amazon Web Services, which powers pretty much the entire internet.

 

[Matt.GC]

We want a thriving British farming industry, we want food farmed responsibly, we want high food standards, we want a shop local to us to sell it to the exact specification we want it in, and we want to pay bargain basement prices for it.

We also want affordable homes, but want our own homes to increase in value, and we don't want these homes to be built near us.

We want good public services, but we don't want to pay high taxes for them, and we don't want to government to borrow any more money.

I have my concerns about some of the ways the government has handled a few things since coming to power a mere few months ago. But it's clear that misinformation is rife, and when you look at the opinions of some, you'd be forgiven for thinking that this is somehow comparable to how the Tories limped on in their last few years of power.

Like the winter fuel voting bribe removal and luxury purchase VAT being levied on private education, it seems like the better off's complaints are clearly being heard loud and clear, and are now being championed by those who've been influenced by the newspaper/social media hullabaloo. Any time I've challenged anyone on the above issues with facts beyond the hype, the subject is either changed, or something that sounds like a Daily Mail opinion column is spouted.

There's nuclear powers at war in the middle east, a nuclear power at war in Europe with another European neighbour and showing it's teeth to us. UK debt to GDP is 92%, there was a large deficit of £22bn in this financial year. The economy has been flatlining for decades and is predicted to do so for some time, whilst productivity remains flat, at a time when this country has turned it's back on its closest trading partners and has few trade deals with others. 1 in 3 children now live in relative poverty, the health service is in crisis, homelessness is increasing. Weather and climate is getting worse, there's a massive asylum processing backlog with thousands of asylum seekers warehoused in hotels, and prisons are so full we're letting criminals out early. A madman fascist democracy denier has just been elected to the Whitehouse, whilst populists are gaining more power here and all over Europe.

But won't someone spare a thought for the 20% Inheritance Tax that land owners descendants will have to pay on assets worth more than £3m.