I read two good comments on social media this morning. I’m not naming the people who wrote them because I don’t know them personally, but I feel their views are well worth repeating…

The first…

”Farms have become a financial tool to avoid inheritance tax. This is why the value of farmland has increased so dramatically.
The new inheritance tax rates on farms will help stop that , it's actually in real farmers favour, if their farm land hadn't been inflated artificially they wouldn't need to worry, they would have been below the threshold anyway.”

and the second…

”Farming needs to be supported of course, but the inheritance tax is possibly not the best thing to protest about as it will affect a small number of farmers and rich landowners like Dyason and Clarkson who bought land to avoid paying inheritance tax. HMRC figures suggest that once allowances are taken into account; a married couple £2 million,plus £650,000 joint allowances, plus £175,000 allowance if it's being passed on to children/grandchildren amounts to £3 million payable at 20% (half normal rate) over ten years without interest accruing. I think the more important things to protest about are the broken promises of a disastrous Brexit, the failure to fully replace the EU farming subsidy, the removal of freedom of movement as many farms depended on seasonal workers from abroad, increased red tape for exporting goods and food, the pathetic trade deals with NZ and Australia which do nothing for British farmers. The post-Brexit farming payment scheme aimed at encouraging good environmental practices, has had the effect of making it more profitable to take fields out of food production and turn them into wildflower meadows or fill them with trees. Brexit has done little for British farmers except increasing costs, red tape, barriers and low quality competitors. The government should be doing more to support farmers by addressing those issues.”

Both of those posts strike me as insightful, and have the ring of truth about them, IMHO.