UFU president William Irvine on his County Armagh farm. Picture: Cliff Donaldson
Following today’s Autumn Budget announcement, including the change to inheritance tax allowing the £1 million Agricultural Property Relief (APR) and Business Property Relief (BPR) threshold to be transferable between spouses, the Ulster Farmers’ Union says Northern Ireland will still be hit hardest due to its owner-occupied farming structure and land prices. The minor change will bring APR and BPR into line with existing inheritance tax legislation, and will not prevent lasting damage to many family farms across Northern Ireland.
UFU president William Irvine said, “Today’s Autumn Budget announcement puts UK agriculture in a better position than it was in this morning, but by no means is it a fitting solution, especially not for Northern Ireland. This transferable threshold is the smallest change that Government could have made. We lobbied for this transferable threshold as one of a package of measures, but this change on its own is quite frankly, not nearly good enough.
“We repeatedly highlighted over the past year when engaging relentlessly with political figures locally and nationally, that because of NI’s unique owner-occupied farming structure and land prices, farmers here are disproportionately exposed to IHT changes. This has not changed, even with the transferable threshold introduced. Northern Ireland family farms will still be the most severely affected in the UK.
“Government has belittled and dismissed our efforts and concerns by making only one slight change to its decision at last year’s budget, one that should have been there to begin with. It does not have any significant benefit for Northern Ireland and with no further protections for family farms, local farmers will be the ones to bear the brunt of Government’s unjust decisions.
“Amendments to the Finance Bill is the final opportunity for proper and suitable changes to be made on the inheritance tax proposals and we are urging the Labour Government to see sense and do what is right, not only for local farm families but for the UK population. What happens to local farms, the businesses that produce the high-quality food we all need to survive, affects us all in more way than one and we are now much too close to the wire. The Government must amend the Finance Bill urgently to prevent irreversible damage to the family farm model.”
The UFU will host a post-budget information webinar for members on Tuesday 2 December, 7:30pm – 9:00pm. You can sign up to attend, by clicking here.
