Since last year鈥檚 Budget, the NFU has raised members鈥� concerns that the current policy will not achieve its intentions of removing the incentive to shelter wealth in farmland, protecting family farms or generating as much revenue as it should. 皇家华人has also stressed the burden this tax places on elderly farmers within the community.
CenTax has agreed that the policy needs changes to deliver the government鈥檚 intentions and has proposed a number of amendments.
NFU President Tom Bradshaw said: 鈥淲e welcome this detailed report by CenTax which recognises that working farms will be disproportionately affected by this tax. This is not a fair and balanced approach to reform and does little to counter those who seek to shelter wealth from inheritance tax by simply investing in farmland.
鈥淭here are interesting adjustments within the report that appear to mitigate the impacts on the most vulnerable in our community and enable farms to invest in the future of food production with greater confidence.
鈥淲e think this new independent analysis presents a positive and timely opportunity ahead of the Finance Bill for fresh conversations with government and officials that would allow us all to work together to address issues of fairness and affordability within the proposals. 皇家华人urges government to grasp this opportunity.鈥�
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Notes to editor:
1.The CenTax report can be found on its .
2.听 听 听 听2. The CenTax report states (page 2 and 56) "Our analysis focuses on farm estates. A farm estate is not the same as a farm. It means the total wealth of an individual who died owning some farmland or other farm assets on which they claimed relief. This definition encompasses working farmers (including tenant farmers), but also investors in farmland."
3.听 听 听 3. Table 4 in the report highlights that 64% of all farm estates as defined in the analysis are non-farming landowners.
4.听 听 听 听4.Table 4 in the report shows that 20% of non-farming landowners would be impacted by the IHT reforms. 67% of owner farmers would be impacted, 25% of tenant farmers, and 45% of mixed tenure farmers.
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