![\"James](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/James-Dyson-inheritance-tax.jpg\")
\t\tDyson said he would have to sell his firm unless inheritance tax laws changed\t<\/p>\n\t\t\tFriday 26 December 2025 12:36 pm\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\tShare<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tFacebook\t\t\t\t\t\tShare on Facebook\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tX\t\t\t\t\t\tShare on Twitter\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tLinkedIn\t\t\t\t\t\tShare on LinkedIn\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tWhatsApp\t\t\t\t\t\tShare on WhatsApp\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tEmail\t\t\t\t\t\tShare on Email\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\tDyson said he would have to sell his firm unless inheritance tax laws changed\t<\/p>\n
The government\u2019s controversial plans to apply inheritance tax on family businesses would leave Dyson<\/a> \u201cunrecognisable\u201d after its eponymous founder\u2019s death and force his family to sell off part or all of the business, the entrepreneur has said.<\/p>\n Speaking to Radio 4\u2019s Today programme, Sir James Dyson warned the consumer electronics giant will be unable to foot what promises to be a multi-billion-pound tax bill on his death, meaning his family will \u201chave to sell the business\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cCompanies are valued on a multiple of their earnings,\u201d he said. \u201cSo if you\u2019re paying 40 per cent of a multiple of your earnings, that\u2019s billions in my case. We haven\u2019t got billions of cash\u2026 so you have to sell the business to pay it.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cA company has no value. There\u2019s no assets that you can sell. Its value is a multiple of its profits. So it\u2019s paper money. You simply don\u2019t have [it].\u201d<\/p>\n At its maiden Budget last year, the government ended two decades-old carveouts<\/a> from inheritance tax \u2013 known as Agricultural Property Relief and Business Asset Disposal Relief \u2013 that allowed farmland and family businesses to be transferred down a generation tax-free.<\/p>\n In a major crackdown that sparked a wave of protests across the country<\/a>, the Chancellor chose to restrict any relief to the first \u00a31m of estates\u2019 agricultural or commercial property, arguing wealthy land and business owners had used them as a means to avoid paying the levy.<\/p>\n Comments come despite inheritance tax u-turn<\/p>\n This month, ministers unveiled a partial U-turn on the crackdow<\/a>n, raising the threshold to \u00a32.5m. But asked whether the original reforms had meant there was a \u201cdanger that Dyson stops being Dyson\u201d after his death, Sir James said: \u201cYes. You cannot pay that tax.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tRead more<\/p>\n \t\t\tLabour U-turns on inheritance tax raid after year of farmer protests<\/a><\/p>\n Dyson issued the inheritance tax broadside on a broadcast of Today that he had guest-edited, during which he also urged ministers to dial up efforts to harness Britain\u2019s manufacturing potential. The entrepreneur, who founded his household appliance giant in 1991, warned that the UK was no longer keen on \u201cmaking things\u201d and we have \u201clost our interest in engineering and manufacturing\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cManufacturing has declined and it\u2019s that decline that I\u2019m worried about,\u201d he said. \u201cWe need to make things. We need to export goods. We need to export something. I\u2019m very simple about economics \u2013 it\u2019s a balance of payments, so if you\u2019re bringing in more than you\u2019re shipping out, you\u2019re in trouble and you\u2019re going to decline.\u201d<\/p>\n