The change to the reforms initially unveiled at Labour\u2019s first budget last year comes after ministers \u201clistened to concerns\u201d of the farming community and businesses, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said yesterday.<\/p>\n
The original Treasury plans to raise money as farmers pass their businesses from generation to generation triggered protests with tractors outside parliament and criticism from some Labour MPs in rural seats.<\/p>\n
And Minette Batters, the former head of the National Farmers\u2019 Union (NFU) who led an independent review for the government, warned that the proposals had led to farmers contemplating suicide to avoid the tax changes.<\/p>\n
The higher threshold, which will take effect in April, will allow spouses or civil partners to pass on up to \u00a35m in qualifying agricultural or business assets between them before paying inheritance tax \u2013 on top of existing allowances, Defra said.<\/p>\n
\nKeir Starmer said he understood farmers\u2019 concerns, but defended the \u2018sensible reform\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Above that allowance, farmers will get 50pc relief on qualifying assets and will pay a reduced effective rate of up to 20pc, rather than the standard 40pc.<\/p>\n
The number of estates facing higher inheritance tax will be reduced from around 2,000 under to original plans to up to 1,100, hitting only the largest farms, according to the government.<\/p>\n
Farmers do not pay inheritance tax on agricultural and business assets which they pass on. Under Labour\u2019s initial proposal, the full 100pc relief was to be restricted to the first \u00a31m of property.<\/p>\n
The plans caused consternation among some Labour backbenchers, with Penrith and Solway MP Markus Campbell-Savours losing the party whip earlier this month for voting against them.<\/p>\n
Prime minister Keir Starmer last week told the Liaison Committee he understood farmers\u2019 concerns, but defended the \u201csensible reform\u201d.<\/p>\n
He has changed course on a number of policies this year, with a U-turn on plans to cut winter fuel payments for pensioners and scaling back reforms to curb the soaring welfare bill.<\/p>\n
NFU president Tom Bradshaw said the announcement would be a \u201chuge relief to many\u201d and would \u201cgreatly\u201d reduce the tax burden for many family farms.<\/p>\n
\nThis fight isn\u2019t finished. Other family businesses are still affected<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Opposition parties said Labour\u2019s rowback did not go far enough.<\/p>\n
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said it was a \u201chuge U-turn by the government\u201d on their \u201ccruel, immoral\u201d farm tax plans.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would have pushed farms to the brink, damaged our food supply, and hurt the people who work long hours to feed the country,\u201d she said on X.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis fight isn\u2019t finished. Other family businesses are still affected by Labour\u2019s tax raid, and we will keep pushing until the tax is lifted from them too.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Liberal Democrats\u2019 Tim Farron called for the government to scrap the \u201cunfair tax in full\u201d.<\/p>\n
Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice said: \u201cThis cynical climbdown \u2013 whilst better than nothing \u2013 does little to address the year of anxiety that farmers have faced in planning to protect their livelihoods.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The change to the reforms initially unveiled at Labour\u2019s first budget last year comes after ministers \u201clistened to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250244,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,13,14,6,5446,9171,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-250243","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-featured-news","11":"tag-featurednews","12":"tag-headlines","13":"tag-keir-starmer","14":"tag-labour-party","15":"tag-latest-news","16":"tag-latestnews","17":"tag-main-news","18":"tag-mainnews","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-top-stories","21":"tag-topstories","22":"tag-world","23":"tag-world-news","24":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115778149710942914","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250243\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}