{"id":124780,"date":"2025-09-07T05:00:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T05:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/124780\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T05:00:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T05:00:11","slug":"ms-urges-rethink-on-family-farm-inheritance-tax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/124780\/","title":{"rendered":"M&S urges \u2018rethink\u2019 on family farm inheritance tax"},"content":{"rendered":"

Marks & Spencer is urging ministers to rethink proposed changes to inheritance tax relief for farmers.<\/p>\n

Bosses at the FTSE 100 retailer want Emma Reynolds, the new environment secretary, to back Britain\u2019s farmers after a backlash from rural communities.<\/p>\n

\u2022 How Rachel Reeves can fix farm tax, by experts who sparked the idea<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe support our farmers\u2019 calls on the government to do more to support farming, and that includes supporting their call for a rethink on inheritance tax,\u201d Alex Freudmann, managing director of M&S Food, said.<\/p>\n

\"Alex<\/p>\n

M&S has previously supported pleas by the National Farmers\u2019 Union to extend a consultation into proposed reforms to agricultural property relief and business property relief.<\/p>\n

The tougher language comes as a signal of intent that M&S is prepared to fight Sir Keir Starmer\u2019s administration on the proposals.<\/p>\n

The government insisted it was \u201cworking with farmers to build a more profitable farming system with food production at its core and that helps restore nature in an uncertain world\u201d.<\/p>\n

This weekend\u2019s invention follows a period of silence from Reynolds\u2019 predecessor, Steve Reed. M&S wrote to Reed on June 19 after taking soundings from key farmers and growers<\/a> to warn him of \u201cdoubt \u2026 that there was a genuine national commitment to increasing the domestic supply of food\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Wake up, Labour: drought and tax have put farming in crisis<\/a><\/p>\n

A letter from Freudmann read: \u201cA clear and concrete target to increase the proportion of indigenous foods eaten in the UK that are grown in the UK would galvanise cross-government action. If it was set down in law, like targets around net zero or nature protection, it could also tilt the balance towards farmers and growers in decisions around planning or access to water. I hope to see a clear and concrete commitment to domestic food production.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reed did not respond, sources said. Reynolds travelled to a pig farm on Saturday. <\/p>\n

A spokesman for the government said: \u201cOur reforms to agricultural and business property relief are vital to fix the public services we all rely on. Three-quarters of estates will continue to pay no inheritance tax at all, while the remaining quarter will pay half the inheritance tax that most people pay, and payments can be spread over ten years, interest-free.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Marks & Spencer is urging ministers to rethink proposed changes to inheritance tax relief for farmers. Bosses at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124781,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[64,63,99,186,184,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-124780","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-finance","12":"tag-personal-finance","13":"tag-personalfinance"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}