Anita McNaught

Getting major DDOS issues since this new story Enjoy while you can Donald Trump Was Recruited by the KGB Under Codename 'Krasnov' Claims Former Soviet Spy Chief – Byline Times bylinetimes.com/2025/02/21/don…

Refresher and update on changes to APR/BPR for inheritance tax The changes proposed to APR & BPR will raise around £200m a year from farming by 2028/29, suggested Dan Neidle of Tax Policy Associates on Saturday, with another £300m or so from other family businesses, and from IHT avoidance schemes. This seems the right sort of ballpark to me. Rumour suggests that this draft policy was kicking around the Treasury for a while with no real political appetite for it. But with support from Arun Advani of CenTax, it was picked up by Rachel Reeves and announced in her Budget. Initially we were told this was about preventing tax avoidance, but then the PM explained to the Parliamentary Oversight Committee that it had no such underlying policy - it was just a money raiser. Nobody had done an impact assessment before introducing the policy to understand whether it might in fact severely damage critical industries. If they had, they would have found out that paring back APR and BPR threatens continuation of family businesses who have to find 20% or so of their value every generation to pay in tax. This jeopardises investment, growth and employment within those businesses. Ministers took the unusual step of recommending that people take tax planning advice to mitigate the impact. However elderly and infirm business owners, and those with limited income, may not have time or may not be able to plan to protect their business. In particular, analysis shows that even if a typical family farm used its entire income for a decade it still wouldn’t be able to afford the proposed tax without selling land. Partly, this is because food production has very tight margin. Partly because there are many pressures on land – development, renewables, food production, environmental benefits – and so land values are much higher than you might expect using normal earnings multipliers. Regardless, farmers and their advisors were shocked to see an unaffordable tax charge being proposed that would cripple their business following a death. Tax experts explained that, luckily, the Treasury could avoid most negative impacts without significantly reducing the tax take by slightly retargeting the proposal. Ideas have been suggested like reducing the relief but adding a clawback arrangement, so that tax falls due when assets are sold, not on death. That would protect growth, investment and productivity across the OMB sector, all of which are at the heart of the Chancellor’s agenda. Disappointingly the Treasury flatly refused to consult on improvements. As a result, farmers have been protesting since the Budget, trying to convey that this proposal severely threatens the future of their business. On Tuesday 18th February the NFU and others are finally meeting with Minister James Murray (who gave the keynote speech at the launch of CenTax in November 2024) to try to persuade him that a shift in implementation of this policy is in everyone’s interest. Given his link to CenTax and its support for this policy, I am not confident of their success, but the meeting is a positive step. I remain hopeful that common sense and pragmatism can triumph over ideology.

If the Treasury wished to consult on the proposed IHT changes, it would hear ideas such as: - transitional relief for the elderly, infirm and unfortunate, to smooth out the current cliff edge at 6th April 2026; - increase the 100% cap to £5m or £10m per person to protect smaller businesses while taxing the ultra-wealthy; - changes to reservation of benefit so that parents can still draw a pension from a farm in their dotage without undermining lifetime gifts to their children; - a farming income test to focus the relief on active farmers (although the Tenants Farmers Association is clear this risks restricting access to farming for new entrants); - a clawback period, so those who inherit a business and immediately sell still have to pay some inheritance tax; - capping rollover relief to increase the tax take on sales for development; - attacking insurance schemes that only exist as IHT avoidance mechanisms, e.g. Discounted Gift Trusts. These ideas could improve the situation, maintain the tax take but sidestep some of the pending human tragedy. But so far they're not listening.

Hurray! Some good news for bees at last. Our new government has followed the science, and refused the application by sugar beet farmers to use banned neonicotinoid pesticides.

Everything you have to do at this point is a hassle. Where do you stay? How do you rent a car and if I really want a pickup truck why are there only electric cars available to rent? It's difficult to even know where to begin. But you find that every neighbor has some bit of intel.

@CamillaRoyle @ORFC @Riverford I was told the first 45 mins in the main hall would be..

@ORFC @anitamcnaught @Riverford Great sessions so far. Is this one still going to be livestreamed? it doesn't seem to be when I click through from the online programme

New ORFC25 session! Will the Government’s Proposed Changes to Inheritance Tax Kill Off Our Small Farms? --- This session will be livestreamed, meaning anyone can feed into this pivotal discussion via the online conference. orfc.org.uk/book-orfc-2025… @anitamcnaught @Riverford

Go back to the drawing board @SteveReedMP @RachelReevesMP @Keir_Starmer Your “plans” are utterly flawed. If you want growth, stop the APR and BPR changes, otherwise you are condemning rural communities to a doom loop of economic and social decline! 6/6

@baysontheroad Bravo, James!

First time back in #Syria for 12 years. At immigration desk, computer revealed I had been banned for life in 2015. But border staff treated that as a badge of honour.

Vivid example of the vertical integration in our food chain. Yet another reason to shop with small companies that are truly independent. The more small indie farms, the better. The more small indie producers, the better. The more small indie shops, the better. The more indie food markets, the better.

@StuartMaggs When my Aunt left me the farm - without warning or consultation - I had the option to sell it, and walk away. But words like ‘duty’, ‘heritage’, ‘guardianship’, ‘community’ came into focus. Land is too fragile to leave in hands of people who do not care passionately about it.

Can some farmers please help me? I feel the question below is best answered by the people who spend their lives working 365 days a year, slogging their hearts out to put food on our table. If farming is so hard, why do you do it. And when the field next door comes up, why would you borrow to buy it? And if you won a million quid on the lottery, why would you plow it back into the farm? Be as straightforward or as poetic as you like. I feel the answer to this question could be hugely important. There is more to life than bare economics.

@StuartMaggs Might also add that as a single woman unable to leverage ‘spousal’ tax benefits, I now feel there is a ECHR case here for discrimination. I’m furious, frankly.

@StuartMaggs Stuart - really value your analysis. I run a diversified organic farm 85 acres. Adapted disused ag buildings for small local businesses. Always charged below-market rents on *everything* to foster community, taking tiny income. Socialism in action! Tax change kills it all.

The hugely important work being done on how many people might be affected by the #FamilyFarmTax will feed back into Treasury estimates of how much this will raise, and the Impact Assessment when it is done. But there is an important underlying thread going a little under the radar. Within the influential CenTax report referenced by the Treasury, and a little buried in the background of the report from the IFS, is a statement that on death "inheritance tax should apply equally to all types of assets". Their argument for that appears to be that businesses with diversified shareholdings perform better financially than family-owned ones. To my mind that ignores the significant benefits that flow from creating an economic environment that supports and nurture generational businesses, encouraging employment, growth, and investment potential without the need to divert significant value away from investment to fund once-in-a-generation tax charges. For 40 years it has been accepted that businesses can be passed down to the next generation to continue without suffering inheritance taxes. The current proposals do not in my view go far enough to protect them. On balance, I think it is better to preserve these businesses than risk breaking them up with tax charges. The risk of tax avoidance could be addressed by a much higher threshold and hold-over of the capital gains tax, for example, so if they are sold after a death, tax is still captured. The question is: "In the long term, will this make or lose money for the Treasury overall?" I'm interested in people's thoughts.

This is absolutely a sub-text in this disastrously ill-conceived IHT/BPR change.

@damo_sheff @henryj17 @Minette_Batters @DanNeidle I will enquire in due course.. though this seems a moral failure to me: What a waste of precious farm resources it would be to pay a multi-national company to offset a tax many believe has been unfairly calibrated. The bankers and financiers win again.. 🤷🏻‍♀️

@anitamcnaught @henryj17 @Minette_Batters @DanNeidle Go down the life insurance policy route then, it’s really not expensive.

A short 🧵For years I’ve listened to Treasury economists opining their desk-top view of farming. What Paul & Dan fail to understand is that Labour have stated they want to tax wealthy people buying land as a tax dodge, claiming it’s driving up land prices, keeping youngsters out.

@henryj17 @damo_sheff @Minette_Batters @DanNeidle Well, quite. Don’t want to go into too much personal detail, but this is my sole income plus I’m supporting a community farm and a motley collection of local artisans. No corporate entity would accept this tiny rate of ROI. Yet it’s locally vital and needs to endure.

@damo_sheff @anitamcnaught @Minette_Batters @DanNeidle And how does Anita live herself? She won't have a farm income once it is handed over and after 7 years it could be sold if the person she gifts it to decides they don't want it

@Minette_Batters @DanNeidle …So no ‘spousal’ transfer for anyone, then?

The Zone of Interest is about the danger of ignoring atrocities – including in Gaza | Naomi Klein theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

.@yanisvaroufakis told red. media “those who try very hard to extract a condemnation of the attack by Hamas” from him or his movement @DiEM_25 will “never get it”. Varoufakis said, “the criminals here are not Hamas…the criminals are Europeans” for remaining silent “as long as it’s Palestinians who die and not the occupiers”. Varoufakis urged Europeans to “redeem ourselves” by pushing for peace via “the destruction of the state of apartheid”.

Once again, I appeal to other commentators to join me in calling for Julian Assange's extradition to be refused by the British government, and for Mr Assange to be freed from his severe an unjustied imprisonment. If this political prosecution is not wrong, nothing is wrong.