{"id":337270,"date":"2025-12-26T22:41:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T22:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/337270\/"},"modified":"2025-12-26T22:41:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T22:41:09","slug":"oxfordshire-farmer-reacts-to-labours-inheritance-tax-u-turn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/337270\/","title":{"rendered":"Oxfordshire farmer reacts to Labour’s inheritance tax U-turn"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Labour\u2019s watered-down plans will see the relief threshold for farmers raised from \u00a31 million to \u00a32.5 million.\n<\/p>\n

\n This comes after months of protests and warnings over farmers contemplating suicide to avoid the taxes as they pass their businesses from generation to generation.\n<\/p>\n

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\n The higher threshold, which will take effect in April, will allow spouses or civil partners to pass on up to \u00a35 million in qualifying agricultural or business assets between them before paying inheritance tax \u2013 on top of existing allowances, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said on Tuesday.\n<\/p>\n

\n Above that allowance, farmers will get 50 per cent relief on qualifying assets and will pay a reduced effective rate of up to 20 per cent, rather than the standard 40 per cent.\n<\/p>\n

\n Farmers protesting in Westminster, London on November 18 (Image: Ben Whitley\/PA Wire)\n<\/p>\n

\n The number of estates facing higher inheritance tax will be reduced from around 2,000 under the original plans to up to 1,100, hitting only the largest farms, according to the Government.\n<\/p>\n

\n Farmers currently do not pay inheritance tax on agricultural and business assets which they pass on.\n<\/p>\n

\n Under Labour\u2019s initial proposal, the full 100 per cent relief was to be restricted to the first \u00a31 million of property.\n<\/p>\n

\n Andy Corner, an arable farmer from Somerton, near Bicester, said the Government’s U-turn is a ‘step in the right direction’.\n<\/p>\n

\n “It’s very satisfying after the effort that’s gone in from us,” he said.\n<\/p>\n

\n The 60-year-old owns a fifth generation farm and has attended more than a dozen protests, which he said ‘massively’ pushed the Government to make the decision.\n<\/p>\n

\n Andy Corner with a police officer at a protest (Image: Andy Corner)\n<\/p>\n

\n “It’s been a long battle… and we just kept going.\n<\/p>\n

\n “It’s still not over – it’s far from over.\n<\/p>\n

\n “We’ve had fantastic support from from the public, and without the public support, we certainly wouldn’t have got to where we have done.”\n<\/p>\n

\n Mr Corner said the threshold increase has taken the pressure off of terminally ill families.\n<\/p>\n

\n “It was their big worry… there’s a lot of people that are very ill that were basically saying that they can’t afford to stay alive.”\n<\/p>\n

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\n But Mr Corner said there is still work to be done: “The figure is obviously a great turning point, but it’s not actually going to be enough.\n<\/p>\n

\n “We’ve got to keep fighting to to try and push this to get to get rid of it totally, or certainly at least increase it a bit further.”\n<\/p>\n

\n Andy Corner at a protest in London (Image: Andy Corner)\n<\/p>\n

\n Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said it was a \u201chuge U-turn by the Government\u201d on their \u201ccruel, immoral\u201d farm tax plans.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt would have pushed farms to the brink, damaged our food supply, and hurt the people who work long hours to feed the country,\u201d she said on X.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThis fight isn\u2019t finished. Other family businesses are still affected by Labour\u2019s tax raid, and we will keep pushing until the tax is lifted from them too.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Labour\u2019s watered-down plans will see the relief threshold for farmers raised from \u00a31 million to \u00a32.5 million. This…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":337271,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[84,4176,4174,4175,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-337270","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-finance","10":"tag-personal-finance","11":"tag-personalfinance","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}