Stuart

#FamilyFarmTax talking points - a helpful guide: 1. "It's only 500 farms". No, that's APR claims above £1m made in one year, 2021/22. Many more people than that are affected by the rules. The CLA estimated the total number is 70,000 farms. On the Government's own numbers it's about 16,000 (500 x one generation of 32 years). The true figure is that it's likely tens of thousands are affected. 2. "There's a £3m exemption". No, that only applies if both spouses are alive, they can split the farm between them, they amend their wills before dying, both they are their children are in stable marriages (or they are prepared to use complex trust structures). It will not be possible for all couples to achieve this. 3. "Family farms are protected". No, DEFRA says the average family farm is 217 acres. At £11,300/acre that's £2.45m. Together with equipment and a farmhouse, that's likely well over £3m which is the maximum level of the exemption. Farms well below that level are affected and will need to take steps to restructure the way they are organised or face inheritance tax bills when the older generation dies. 4. "How can your income be that low? The price of land must be high because of tax avoiders." The current 100% exemption for land and businesses have applied since 1992. The price of land didn't start to rise significantly until 2005, when the Single Farm Payment was introduced. Tax rules only have a minor affect on land value, which is driven by multiple factors including development, rollover relief, environmental needs, and that they're not making more of it 5. "This only affects the very wealthy and tax avoiders" At one end lifestyle buyers may well be within the £1m exemption per person, at the other the very wealthy can still plan by making gifts. The people who cannot avoid it are family farmers who need to retain access to the farm income. 6. "Wealthy farmers can just pay their fair share of tax" An average farm income is about 1%. Even if you pay over 10 years, the inheritance tax payments will often take all the income, and so part of the farm will need to be sold. This reduces efficiency and makes the farm less viable for the future. What have I missed?

@CutMyTaxUK It's quite possible that she asked, and they confirmed and gave her a timescale?

How come Angela Rayner knows so much about what's going on inside HMRC? What document, if any, did HMRC earlier provide that enabled the Guardian to claim she wasn't being investigated for dodging CGT? Maybe HMRC appreciates her because she wants everyone else to pay more taxes?

This is utterly humiliating for our PM and shows intense disrespect for the House.

I disagree with Nick Timothy. I think that if people wish to celebrate their religion in public they should be allowed to do that. Many people from different religions worship the same god or different ones, in many different ways, and it is right that the country should support that. We should all be allowed to criticise each others' religious practices too, of course, but that's a different point.

Today's performance by the PM was, frankly, pathetic. I would urge people to write to the Speaker to complain. It takes no more than a couple of minutes to fill out the straightforward form, here: parliament.uk/business/commo…

I know PMQ's is really a bit of political theatre when it comes to questions from Kemi and Ed Davy, but it was an utter farce today as the Speaker was forced to intervene to explain he's not responsible for the PM's (lack of) answers, but also that it's PMQ's, not Opposition Questions. Given the PM has all but refused for months to engage with the substance of any questions Kemi has asked, what options are left besides the opposition gathering en masse outside the Commons next week instead of inside the Chamber to make the point that this is unacceptable? Starmer is clearly unable to think on his feet, and is damaging our democracy as a result. In the meantime I've written to the Speaker of the House and would urge everyone to do the same. parliament.uk/business/commo…

I’ve commented on this before (and I am a tax advisor). Paying the wrong SDLT in her circumstances was, in my view, completely understandable and I didn’t think she should have quit over it. It was an esoteric mistake and should just be corrected, with that tax, interest and any penalty paid. I don’t support her politics, but don’t think the SDLT issues should have cost her her job.

@StuartMaggs Does her values include trying to avoid paying tax?

Angela Rayner makes a very good point in that we need our politicians to: a) have values; b) express them clearly; and c) act in accordance with them. This would mean that when difficult decisions needed to be made, voters would at least feel they were getting what they voted for. That is evidently not the case with Keir Starmer give the debacle on winter fuel Payments, employment tax rises, changes to BPR/APR, jury trials, etc., etc. I'm sure I'd disagree with Angela's decisions about how to make the country a better place, but she's right on this point at least. theguardian.com/politics/2026/…

@tucker004 I've disagreed with many, many things she's said and done over the years, but here at least she has a good point.

@StuartMaggs She’s creaming it in at speaking events telling people they need to back socialism. What is it they say about socialists…..

Hi Clare, I think the job of a leader is to calm the situation down as best they can for the country, using the levers at their control to promote confidence and security, providing a rich ground for the country to grow and develop. I'd even have respect for the PM if he announced "We've announced the fuel duty rise and the economics of the country mean that it's required to balance finances and secure the confidence of the markets. However if the current action in the Middle East continues and price increases continue into September we're already developing a short term package of support for those hardest hit, as we are doing with heating oil costs." Saying "we'll leave the decision til September, maybe fuel duty will rise or maybe it won't" reinforces the negative view that the country is adrift in a world being battered by an unpredictable and capricious President, and we'll just have to see where we wash up. The difference is whether you want our leaders to both have and project the appearance of decisiveness and control. I think they should. I think Keir Starmer is not doing that.

@StuartMaggs Stuart. With respect. At a time of great uncertainty- few constants & many variables due to the US war against Iran. Wouldn't you agree it would be very unwise for the PM to act impetuously when the actions of an unpredictable capricious US President creates geopolitical chaos.

I sat in a room with 40+ experienced agricultural professionals this morning and when asked what the best thing DEFRA could do for the industry, the response from the room was "stability and certainty". This tweet by @Hepworthclare reflects a problem in thinking that pervades the current Government. Rather than giving businesses certainty, the Treasury tells people to assume it's probably going up, but it might not. That means that every business has to plan on the basis there will be a rise in fuel duty, factor that into their management accounts and cashflow forecasts, and make savings today in order to accommodate the expected rise which may never come.. A competent Government recognises that businesses need as much stability and certainty as possible, and does everything they can to provide it. "We'll decide at the last minute what's going to happen" is the sort of thinking you expect from a slightly chaotic sole trader, not the Government of the sixth largest economy in the world.

Regarding jury trials, I’d ask that MPs reflect on how in the future they’re going to view their time in politics. Will anyone ever look at themselves in the mirror and be proud of voting to restrict trial by jury? Having established a political career, is that really what you want to do with it?

This story surprises me not a jot. If you have your deputy prime minister in a confusing technical tax trap, you want an authoritative opinion about whether she has done wrong or not. More interesting perhaps is the effort in play to try to keep Ms Rayner out of Number 10 after the May elections.

@jdpoc It was in the Telegraph. Are they not The Right Media? telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/…)%20latest%20forecast%20in%20November.

Things You Won't See In The Right Media Because It Would Undermine Their False Narrative ...

@DanNeidle A few years back I heard a rumour that an HMRC Inspector who was unwell at home made a list of the people on one of the many daytime property "buy it, do it up and flog it" programs, and then sent very uncomfortable letters to them when he got back to the office!

That tax advice is epically bad (if you buy property with the intention of flipping it, and are stupid enough to advertise that's what you did, then there's no CGT exemption). But he says he "knows a lot about tax". Uh huh. Question is: can you do better? Meaning: worse?

TikTok, YouTube and Facebook are full of rubbish tax influencers, spinning any kind of old codswallop, whether it's for clicks or fees I'm trying to create a "Greatest Hits" list. The worst of the worst I'd love it if people could post examples. I'll start - Samuel Leeds:

Greens won the by-election yesterday not by a sliver, but comfortably. Labour figures foment discord over coming couple of months - more U-turns, painful times in Commons, yet another refresh that somehow doesn't get off the ground. May by-elections come and in an atmosphere of sniping and general jostling for position, Labour gets hammered across the Board, squeezed by Reform on the right and the Greens on the left. Starmer gets pushed out. Labour elects a new leader under one-member, one-vote. Recognising they're being out-flanked on both sides, labour shifts leftwards and backs Angela Rayner regardless of her tax position. She pulls things together, appoints a broad cabinet to try to unify things but the party inevitably shifts leftward on policy issues. The Autumn Statement includes further tax increases targeted on the rich to fund policies that seek to reclaim the leftier bits of the the centre left. The Budget balances but it's feeling painful for business. Business confidence stutters. What's next?

@PJTheEconomist @BenZaranko The graduated "RAG indicators across a handful of metrics" from the IFS seems a better way to deal with this than being a perpetual slave to hypothetical headroom. It felt promising.

Just seen from @BenZaranko Made me laugh (despairingly). Lower black line shows average of govt "plans" for debt over 5 years from each fiscal event since 2010. Higher red line shows outturn. Plan is always for debt to start falling in 2-3 years. Reality is inexorable increase

Sreeeeeeccchhh! Another U-turn. I don’t mind - it’s good to get better decisions. You just wish that sometimes they could get it right first time.

I wonder if Keir Starmer is getting frustrated at Trump over his U-turns?

@jcbaldry That's my frustration. You'd have hoped that the Government would be better at this stuff.

@StuartMaggs Apparently new advice on whether postponement of the local elections was actually lawful. You'd think that might have been bottomed out before on the basis it was bound to be challenged. So now Reform can crow about it. One despairs.

Local elections U-turn, Chagos Islands letter, civil service refusal to sign off Chris Wormald's redundancy package, and that's just today! It's going to be a long time til May.