Here’s a short story about who wins and loses from the status quo of our inheritance tax rules - and about, what you might politely call ‘sub-optimal’ journalism🧵

November 25, 2024 - 17:00 UTC

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Bravo👏
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A true wolf in sheeps clothing! Exactly the sort of person who gives the large % of genuine family farm owners of much smaller farms a bad name. Cats chance in hell his kids are going to suffer.
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@skyview.social unroll
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Wouldn't it be more effective to introduce a wealth tax to capture this instead of targeting farmers?
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After IHT fb Q: ‘how cld landowners better support their tenant farmers/ help farmers tackle s/mk buying power etc.’ => triggered mass pile-on from some of my landowning friends with ‘envy politics’ featuring in many replies, not much discussion about solutions & Heritage Proj 2025 support - scary 🤯
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This from @theifs.bsky.social is the first time I’ve really got my head round this. Excellent piece.
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ifs.org.uk/articles/inheritance-tax-and-farms-0
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Nice to have some high quality MPs able to take it to the media.
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@skyview.social unroll
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skywriter.blue/pages/torstenbell.bsky.social/post/3lbrypqm5yk2f
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On 19 November, the Times ran a ‘news’ piece on the demonstration in Westminster by farmers opposed to changes to inheritance tax. Obviously reporting the news is good, but reading such a one sided piece made me think it belonged in the comment pages www.thetimes.com/uk/environment/article/tractors-break-through-barricades-in-whitehall-as-up-to-20000-farmers-fight-iht-betrayal-vdrv353dj
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Thanks for this, it is sadly a common theme that we have “farmers” bleating when they really have no idea what farming is. I am a 6th generation farmer and I cannot describe how furious I get when these articles arise. It does us no good.
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All Reeves has done is apply the same rules to inheriting a farm as inheriting any other business ..
bsky.app/profile/andygjburge.bsky.social/post/3lbrbga3wjc2r
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So we can conclude that everyone similarly affected comes from a privileged non farming background.
What a relief.
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In it they tell the story of John Kemp-Welch. Here’s how he’s described: “Kemp-Welch, 88, who owns 5,000 acres of "difficult hill farming land" in Perthshire where he and his children farm blackface sheep.”
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Oh well done
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Superb thread! Thank you.

The same sort of people trying to rile up the people who rely most on the services this tax will support ably assisted by our press.
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@unrollplease.bsky.social
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Good work!
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Any comments/thoughts on the suggestions from @danneidle.bsky.social which could ensure the IHT changes don’t hit any working farmers and also hit those trying to dodge tax even more? Could be a good tweak to help win the argument?
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This is what I've been looking for, thanks for sharing!
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I’ve just read in the Manchester Evening News about some poor farmer’s son who crashed his dad’s £350,000 Aston Martin into a hedge on his farm. His dad was away on business. In Flookburgh, Cumbria, two fields - with planning permission - on sale for £400k per acre.
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Tyvm for this. 👏👏👏
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Also at 88 years old, he might consider to have already handed over his farm land to the next generation already!
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Great post , neatly sums up how those with an agenda can manipulate media and opinion
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First they came for the communists; and I did not speak out. Then they came for the millionaire, tax avoiding, ex stockbroker, land owners and I definitely did not speak out
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Great thread… thank you Thorsten
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Brilliant thread! Really incisive.
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That will be ‘Sir John Kemp-Welch’ to you please Torsten - also not mentioned in the article!
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What an excellent bit of investigation. It makes you wonder why Times (and other media) 'journalists' don't do a bit of investigation themselves, but I suspect they're happy to have crap fed to them from someone higher up the food chain.
Gotta think of the mortgage payments.
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Good and informative post. Thank you Torsten.
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The Times should be ashamed
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Hi @torstenbell.bsky.social hope you don’t mind. I’ve used the Bluesky skywriter tool that creates a nicely formatted webpage for the threads above! skywriter.blue/pages/torstenbell.bsky.social/post/3lbrypqm5yk2f
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Excellent. Re-read, not only on farms & taxes but on HONESTY IN JOURNALISM

(of which there’s not a lot around)
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Many thanks for this.

Have you had a look at the incoming new rules on duty on wine. They are hugely complex. I was hoping that a new Labour administration would be willing to reduce red tape and make going business with Europe easier.
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I get the impression that many of these farms run by the wealthy elites are little more than country estates to keep the public at arms length whilst having complete control of the land around their homes.
I'm sure the locals will have plenty of stories about how unneighbourly these people can be.
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Good article. Think they will publish any corrections? (Shaking head no)
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Won’t anybody think of the ex stockbrokers trying to avoid inheritance tax?
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This has been shared a lot and I feel I should credit @apiln.bsky.social for warping my sense of humour.
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@skyview.social unroll
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These are “real” farmers, not your selfish, über rich, greedy pretend farmers.
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The sensible people of the UK have seen through this protest, most probably because of the louder voices screeching about unfairness. The real hard grafting farmers are too busy grafting on their land to join in protests which are really about well off grifters moaning about a tiny % of their wealth
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Great thread. Calling it "sub-optimal" journalism is very polite!
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Agreed!
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Thanks for this thread
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Great work. Ty for sharing.
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I’m still at a loss to understand why farming is such a special industry that people inheriting a three million quid asset shouldn’t pay a trivially easily (legally) avoidable tax on their inheritance.
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Those who are complaining loudest have most to lose......as we will see in the states as Trump gives more away to the ultrarich paid for by tarrifs.....
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Lovely to see the deception and hypocrisy revealed in a well written thread - revealing piece.

I’m sure the Times will include it in their full reporting the situation with Farmers !!
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Great thread. Do you think the Times journalists are misled, or are actively pursuing an agenda?
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100% the last one and Torsten really needs to speak to Lisa and get the BBC changed and proper journalists back in charge of the news and not party appointments
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I don't think that it's only The Times pursuing an agenda against the government. I stopped watching BBC news and current affairs some time ago and don't get me started on The Mail/Express etc.
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The second one.
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Your using “journalist” very loosely here
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If they were 'misled' they are clearly not up to the job.
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The Times began a downhill/ right ward slide under John Witherow, but it has become a plummet since Tony Gallagher took over. Stopped buying the weekday a while ago. Still buy on a Saturday but mainly for the crossword.
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Great thread. Thanks Torsten.
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Leveson 2 please.
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That’s both shocking and depressing but thank you for sharing your findings.
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Sub optimal from the viewpoint of truth. Maximally optimal for the land owning classes in terms of creating a stink.
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Thank you so much for shining the light of truth on to this area. Reputable journalists would once have given a semblance of balance to their articles, but clearly, many now merely seek to promote their owner's agenda.
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Ok so why not bring in rules on who can own land and how much rather than the blunt approach of IHT which is more like likely to affect real farmers as distinct from the person you mention?
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Once the paper headlines are released Labour fact checkers should up their game and establish “facts” before any comment. They should up their game given the state of the print newspapers so relied on by msm.
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Starmer’s media team is very poor
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An excellent thread. An often-asked question is “why are the ‘real farmers’ supporting the IHT dodging investors?”. The answer is that the IHT exemption has inflated the value of their land wildly. Hence the ridiculous farming yields quoted (£30k annual income on land worth many millions).
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Who wouldn’t want the option if passing their farmland on free of IHT, or alternatively selling it out at a multiple of its true economic worth, simply because external capital is using farmland as a tax wrapper to avoid IHT?
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Great thread and reply/further info thread from the indefatigable @guyshrubsole.bsky.social - thank you both for your work. Reposted and shared 🙏🙏
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👏👏 Not a huge shock tbh. Vast swathes of the media has been sold to the highest bidders.
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bsky.app/profile/russellengland.bsky.social/post/3lbegwkifwc2q
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*Pictured, clutching a poor old dog for extra effect.... 😔
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No sympathy - especially since he plays the victim
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Even if he were simply an aging poor’ish farmer he could have passed the farm on to his children over any 7 years to avoid IHT. Or purchased an insurance policy that on his death the payout would cover IHT due. Greedy selfish old man. No sympathy deserved.
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Thank you Torsten Bell for doing the job that reputable newspapers are failing to do.
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IT, also leads to an unfairness in covering care costs. A millionaire spending £100k on care would see their estate after tax fall by £60k. The estate of a person with a net worth of £500k with identical care would pay the full £100k. Middle class thus more incentivised to opt for assisted dying
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Excellent!
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The sub-optimal journalism is only outclassed by the suboptimal MPs.
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FIVE THOUSAND ACRES. Most farms in Wales are surely not much more than 50 acres?
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They won’t pay anything if they are that small
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Excellent again @torstenbell.bsky.social I wish more media would call out and challenge this kind of malign media
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I'm very glad that you're my MP. This is excellent and insightful as always.
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I also don't think I've seen a single challenge to the "I only earn £12k a year on my £3m+ asset" but somehow can invest £100-300k+ in a combine harvester. Growing magic money trees?
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To avoid being classed as a "hobby farm" by HMRC, a farm only has to make a £1 profit every 6 years. It can make a loss for 5 years as long as it makes a profit in the sixth.
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I'm not sure quite how it works, but I've been advised that there are significant grants available for farm machinery. I imagine if you know how the system works you could fund quite a lot under the heading of 'productivity'... defrafarming.blog.gov.uk/2024/03/12/grants-available-in-2024/
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I doubt many of those machines that cost in the £100,000 are ' bought ' most likely they are leased and when people say ' well the machinery alone is worth £xm - the reality is the farm owns 0 equity in plant and change in ownership of the farm would just require changing name on lease agreement.
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Or that there is no logic in the land being a £3m asset if it only earns 12k. Its worth a lot less if this is the residual income
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I don't necessarily mean to come out to bat for farmers, but these are not mutually exclusive. If they have equipment ok finance leases or purchased outright, they'll be recognising it as an asset an depreciating it over its life. The cost of which will be one of the expenses in getting to that £12k
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www.bing.com/search?q=poor+poor+farmer+lyrics&qs=n&form=QBRE&sp=-1&lq=0&pq=poor+poor+farmer+lyrics&sc=0-23&sk=&cvid=3FE7AFF97F984BAE86993520ACA7F106&ghsh=0&ghacc=0&ghpl=
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Vested interests always protest when a change is made that affects them. If the change makes the overall tax system more equitable then they just have to wear it. It’s like VAT on school fees, some are adversely affected, but it corrects a distortion in the market and makes the tax system fairer.
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It's almost as though most of the print media have vested interests in the status quo as far as land ownership is concerned. Imo Labour need to use this 5y golden opportunity to reform press ownership (and not get into bed with them as Blair did). It's the only way progressive politics has a future.
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BIG unfounded assumption:
LIEbor4fairness
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Funny how farming has twice as much impact on rivers as water companies, but the print media have led the vanguard against water companies for the last two years…
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It's hard to get used to the sawn-off shotgun assault on this govt by a cynically hostile media that looked the other way for 14-years or distracted us by setting us at each other. It's mostly driven by their masters' revulsion of tax. Starmer isn't playing ball.
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Great thread.
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Nicely investigated Torsten!
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Re #UK #farmer #inheritancetax perks
Sure #farmers are important they provide food
So too is everyone else not getting the same tax perks;
#supermarket employee selling food
#nurses nursing the under/over fed
#advertising sales people informing us of food
Fact is, we're all worthy of same tax perks
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Thank you Torsten. We so badly need truth and correct facts rather than the quarter truths and often downright lies from our MSM.
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Never let the facts get in the way of a good headline! Well done…
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Have you looked into any of the personal estates of our esteemed MPs who oppose this change?
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NZ nZnAZ
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Fantastic piece that should be unnecessary, but clearly wasn’t!
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The issue with the tax, is not this tax. There are many psudo farmers-- escape to the country exploiting the system. Plus other tax loop holes of self employed/vat. It's that every other bit of help to the real farmers has been removed brexit, shit deals (eg AUS) imports of foriegn lamb and beef 1/2
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Then we have the Elms, any decent farmer is already
trying to do some environmental work. It's better for the animals to have hedge rows, decent drainage etc. . Have nuance on the size and type of land before blanket tree request. And maybe we could ask golf clubs and the like to pitch in.
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The 'final straw' was actually #Brexit.
IHT is just a nice emotive story to paint farmers as victims, but the truth is that most of them burnt the house down by voting for Brexit and they're now looking to pin the blame on something/somebody else.
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I live in a rural area & understand that some farmers just about scrape a living due to pressures from many factors outside their control. However, this chap and the rest of his ilk do nothing to promote their cause. The press should not be giving them airtime. But hey, he who pays the piper.....
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The more I hear the more I think this tax change is a step in the right direction.
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