on October 31, 2024, 11:41 pm, in reply to "If 3.4 m farms aren’t viable and 4m farms are, there are solutions other than exempting rich farmers"
And farms aren't like other businesses in that most people getting into farms are from farming families who have grown up with it and the lifestyle and rhythms of farming.
You don't get many people coming in who would be new to farming buying a farm however cheap it is.
Which is why the government needs to facilitate the transfer of active farms between generations.
(Fwiw looks like the Irish government recognises this and offers 90% tax relief for anyone transferring an active farm to an active farmer.)
Previous Message
from inheritance tax. Land isn’t as fungible as stocks but it’s not that different. He wants to keep his family farm, I get that. Plenty of aristos wanted to keep the family estate too. If he can earn enough to pay the tax he can keep the farm. I don’t see the issue really.
Previous Message
as a family business. Sheep etc need a certain amount of grazing land. And that's assuming there is someone who wants to buy a fractional piece of farmland to run as a separate farm.
So farmer may well end up selling the whole farm.
And once farmland is sold to builders it is permanently lost to farming which is a loss to the country.
Quite different from selling down a stock portfolio. Previous Message
But there’s nothing about a farm that isn’t equally true about a property portfolio or a beautifully designed share portfolio. I’d like more land! isn’t a great case for an exemption. Previous Message
My landlord died this year, he had over 100 properties
His family are in the process of selling some to cover the required taxes
I'm not sure why Farmers should get exemption thats all.
I possibly dont understand farming, I get that.
I just tend to be less sympathetic when I see millionaires complaining, about having to abide by the rules others have to
Responses