The government can count itself lucky that the farmers’ army that marched on London earlier this week did not tip trailer-loads of manure at its door. No doubt some considered it, such was their anger at the Chancellor’s announcement of changes to inheritance tax on farm land and property.
The clamour from irate farmers has been so widely reported that only hermits will have missed their main grievance: that the exemption farmers have enjoyed since Margaret Thatcher abolished inheritance tax on their businesses in 1984 is to end. As of April 2026, farms valued at over £1million will pay 20% tax on anything over that figure (compared to 40% for the general population, at a considerably lower threshold), and they will be given 10 years in which to pay it back.
To most of us, that doesn’t sound such a big deal – generous in fact, especially when you consider that many of the country’s wealthiest individuals deliberately buy agricultural land in order to avoid paying “death duty” when they die. Yet while the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) calls this new regime “fair and proportionate”, many farmers, especially those making little profit, are in despair.
Read more Rosemary Goring
The problem, in essence, is that while farms are often asset rich, they can also be cash poor. With their average return on capital a mere 0.5%, it’s no wonder thousands dread the day this new levy bites. One guest on the BBC’s Today programme cited the situation of an 80-year-old whose 450-acre farm is valued at £8million, yet whose profit last year was £19,000. If he were to die after April 5, 2026, his heirs........