Rachel Reeves’s ‘tractor tax’ will hit 2,500 farmers a year, 75,000 over a generation – five times as many as the Chancellor claims because she doesn’t understand the industry, a leading expert has said. The Telegraph has more.
Treasury analysis that claims the Chancellor’s changes to agricultural relief on inheritance tax will affect just 500 farmers each year is “wrong” because it has not properly understood the industry, the Central Association of Agricultural Valuers (CAAV) has said.
The figures have also been analysed by BBC Verify, the broadcaster’s fact-checking service, which has sided with the Treasury while dismissing significantly higher numbers published by the industry.
However, Jeremy Moody the Secretary and Adviser to the CAAV said the measures will in fact hit 2,500 farmers each year, five times the Treasury’s estimates.
He said: “They’re wrong because they’re working on an incomplete picture.”
“What they got wrong is, they didn’t know what to ask and HMRC couldn’t answer them even if they had.”
Over a generation, Mr. Moody said 75,000 farms will be affected by the changes.
Currently, farmers can claim up to 100% relief on inheritance tax on their land and buildings through agricultural property relief (APR) and up to 100% relief on their operational equipment and livestock via business property relief (BPR).
However from April 2026, only the first £1 million of both their land and business combined will qualify for 100% relief through APR and BPR under changes announced by Ms. Reeves last month. Above this threshold, inheritance tax will be charged on their estates at an effective rate of 20%. Estates are normally charged 40% but farmers will continue to benefit from relief on half of that amount.
The Government has been publicising the BBC’s analysis of the Treasury figures, with Sir Keir Starmer telling reporters last week: “All of you can check out what that means in terms of the impact. I think the BBC has already done it.”
While the Government has insisted that this analysis incorporates claims for both BPR and APR combined, Mr. Moody said it has approached the calculation in the wrong way.
The Treasury analysis was based on how many estates claimed APR and then claimed BPR, but this has “completely missed” the people who are farmers but only claim BPR, Mr Moody said.
The Treasury and the BBC’s analysis has therefore missed people who own the land but do not own the farmhouse (such as those in farming partnerships), people who only have tenanted businesses and therefore do not own land or buildings, and farmers who are shareholders in family companies.
Mr. Moody said: “All of these categories come together to produce really quite a serious number of people and some of them are really quite significant claims. A dairy farm with 200 dairy cows will start with £500,000 worth of dairy cattle before anything else.”
Incorporating estimates for all of these people, the number of individual taxpayers who will be affected will in fact be 2,500 per year, Mr. Moody said.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: Farmers can marry their mother-in-law to avoid the new tax, it has emerged, as spouses still qualify for 100% tax relief. As long as everyone’s clear where they stand on conjugal rights…
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
Just don’t meet up with Van Tam. He’ll infect you with a super-virulent scary- variant of acute cretinism.
And I am a genuine maiden rich in Girton lore!
Worse than that, he might tempt you to sell your soul to the Devil. And he’s probably not fun company.
Van Tam, Bill Gates and Michael Gove, they’ll none of them be missed… they’re going on my list.
It’s getting to be a bloody long list. Are you sharpening your snicker snacker snee, ready for some chippy chippy chop?
How safe were we anyway? Here is the basis I have been working on.
Officially,127,480 covid-19 deaths in the UK. This includes (but may not be limited to) any death within 28 days of a positive pcr test; deaths from people (Muslims for example) who were buried before they could have a proper autopsy but were put as covid-19 to be on the safe side; people who showed one or more of the symptoms associated with covid-19 when they died; people in care homes etc. who were put as covid-19 for reasons of convenience or duplicity.
So obviously the number who have died of covid-19 is significantly less than the official figure – but how much less? I am assuming at least 25% less, and possibly less than half the official figure. Are there any highest/lowest/probable estimates?
Then there is total deaths and total respiratory deaths for the year. My understanding is that total deaths for 2020 were about 68,0000 higher than expected, with the most deaths, adjusted for age and population, since 2008. However, some of those extra deaths were caused by lockdowns and related measures – were there many more respiratory deaths than usual? were there actually significant numbers of respiratory deaths over what would be expected after the Spring outbreak?
150k deaths in around 28mio?
I like the logic you’ve used but I think your rate is out by a factor of 100. Another thing you could say is taking Ioanniddis’s latest estimate of IFR 0.15%, based on 40% of the population being infected, the “real” number of deaths is more like 40k than 150k.
If I have a body and an antibody, will they cancel out?
It was manufactured hysteria right from the word go! There never was a pandemic just a politically motivated one and the gullible people fell for it. We should be maskless and walking around freely, going off on holidays and enjoying our lives, but we are not, which should scream at people that the problem lies with a government hooked on the power buzz and unwilling to release the people from their prison.
There was a ‘pandemic‘ – but only because the severity of the disease had been conveniently removed from the definition.
No pandemic, but there were more deaths than usual in April weren’t there, presumably because of some sort of bug going round?
“– but how much less?”
Best estimates are c. 1/5th are actually from Covid.
Into the risk equation, you have to feed (1) the chances of physically coming across an genuinely infective individual and (2) the chances of catching that infection within the particular circumstances. The chances are minute.
So a lot less! Thinking about it, not that surprising. More deaths than usual in Spring, but for a relatively short period. More deaths than usual going into nAutumn/Winter, but not a huge amount more – and some of those caused by the restrictions (and vaccines?).
Incredibly safe?
It’s completely, totally, perfectly, absolutely safe for 67 million vaccinated and unvaccinated people to meet up!!!!
I’d never heard of Joe Rogan but looking at that Twitter thread … really, really depressing.
There is Twitter, and then again there is reality.
Joe Rogan is is great, a bit shouty for me and his podcasts are too long but he is as far removed from woke as you can imagine.
The only reason snowflakes would view his site would be to find something to be offended about.
If widespread antibody testing had taken place this time last year, I wonder what the results would have been?
suppressed by now.
Driving isn’t safe either.
used to be, back when they had a 4mph speed limit. I’m with the London to Brighton peo0ple though!
It’s like well safe innit.
In other news… The Director of Communications of the World Health Organization, Gabriella Stern (https://twitter.com/gabbystern), was formerly Director of Media and External Relations at — wait for it — the Bill & MelindaGates Foundation (https://www.odwyerpr.com/story/public/6118/2016-01-12/wsjs-stern-gates-foundation-pr-slot.html)
Time for a judicial review of the Secretary of State’s view that there is a public health situation justifying any measures, seeking an order to quash (invalidate) any restrictions as unreasonable and ultra vires.
But that assumes that the judiciary aren’t fully signed up to tyranny.
Can’t they just do what they want since they started that politicised “supreme court” nonsense? Thank you very much, Mr. Blair.
why I can’t emphasise enough, be careful what you say on here. Remember the film of 1984? They tried to join the resistance, but found they’d been had by the state. No doubt in years to come, it will turn out that the state were up to all sorts (perhaps details about the 77th will come out one of these days!). Though I have a nasty feeling they already know quite a lot about us.
So pleased by the Robert Dingwall piece. I am so glad he keeps trying to cut through the hysteria, he’s been trying for so long and I am thankful he hasn’t given up. Every day I come to this site looking for hope and sometimes if find it.
“The ZOE Study’s analysis of vaccine efficacy and side-effects based on data from 627,383 ZOE contributors. They learned that around one in four people experience mild side effects, the most common being headaches, fatigue and tenderness around the injection site”
Well – I obviously haven’t done proper sampling, but the opportunity sample that I have knowledge of has side effects nearer 2 to 3 in 4, and severe fever has been a large proportion.
This may be due to the fact that the Zoe figures, too, are derived from a non-random sample of younger individuals.
You last sentence reminded me to update readers of the progress in La Belle Francaise.
Nothing, nada, that is the number of positive tests ( cases) have peaked a fallen a smidgen, the number of hospitalisations/ ICU beds after positive test have peaked and fallen a smidgen, its still concentrated on Paris and the N East.
But this has prompted the Govt to announce ending restrictions on time for the May month of ‘bridging’ holidays. No geographical restrictions from 3 May, restaurants/cafes open for terraces 16 May and end of month for internal use. Vax certificates etc ruled out for any of this, possible use for large concerts in the summer. Border controls waiting for the Schengen/EU ‘green card’. Which means in practice that Antigen and PCR tests will apply for reentry from countries that allow you to get there in the first place. Emergency Legislation probably not renewed from 3 May , but for 6 months a sort of muddle, sorry middle path which would allow govt to take ‘measures’ if things ‘get out of hand’.
Re your Zoe comment, the French PCR tests have been concentrated on the 20-40 yr old group, and so that age group so now the most infected. Its just a testademic.
The all cause death rate for 2021 is mapping along the 2019 line almost exactly, indeed weirdly following monthly ‘bumps’. Obviously disease/deaths in France follows the monthly holiday pattern like the rest of the economy.
Do infections stop between midday and 2 p.m. while the virus has lunch?
Its a very polite and well behaved virus, so I think you will be correct. In the same way it doesn’t infect when you are sitting down and eating or drinking, only when walking to or from the table. There are many other examples.
Ah yes, the region where they are still “vaccinating” over-75’s (by my calculations).
“Let us pray the Christian ‘Dunkirk Spirit’ saves us from sinister science”
I reckon the Dunkirk spirit went out the window ages ago. To extend the analogy – the inhabitants have been standing on the dockside welcoming the invaders with tea and homemade cakes.
There was a national day of prayer before the miracle of Dunkirk. Any common enterprise that would unite the nation these days? (Don’t tell me – panic buying?). The Gerries were said to be welcoming our D-Day Dodgers with tea in Italy!
. I tell you, their generation would have sorted this out.
He’s been told he appeals to the ‘Corrie-watching’ set, so he tries to use what he thinks are their idioms, just makes him look and sound like an idiot.
Britain is “well on the way to herd immunity”?? I am convinced we reached herd immunity back in the peak of infections a year ago.
I hate this safetyism in our society – it’s driving me crazy! Message in Asda: “if you have any concerns about safety, please speak to a member of our staff.” Sainsburys: “we are doing all that we can to keep you safe.” On the tube: “wear a covering over your nose and mouth. It’s there to protect us all.” In the toilets: “Please do not use this hand basin for everyone’s safety.” ararghghghghghgh!!!!