A farmer dies in April 2026.
His son inherits the farm. The farm has been in the family since 1847.
The farm consists of: 300 acres of grazing pasture, a farmhouse built in 1892, a barn, a milking parlour, two tractors of varying ages, a Land Rover that runs about 70% of the time, and a herd of 180 Hereford-cross cattle.
On paper, the farm is worth approximately £3.2 million. This is because land near him has been bought recently by a London hedge fund looking for carbon credits, which has dragged the comparable value of every field within forty miles upward to a number nobody local can justify.
In cash, the farm produces a profit of about £28,000 a year in a good year. In a bad year it loses money. The son also works as a fencing contractor three days a week to keep the operation viable.
The inheritance tax bill on a £3.2 million estate, even at the reduced 20% rate, comes to approximately £140,000 after the increased threshold is applied. The son does not have £140,000. The son has never had £140,000. The son has £4,200 in his current account and an overdraft.
The son sells 60 acres to a developer to pay the tax. The developer puts solar panels on the 60 acres. The remaining herd cannot be sustained on the reduced land. The herd is sold. The barn becomes a holiday let.
A different family eats Brazilian beef this Christmas without knowing why the price went up.
The Treasury collects £140,000.
The land never produces British food again.
#uk #brits #woodlander #farm #food #sovereign #fight
Replies (60)
My Dad is in a similar scenario in the states but luckily my grandparents had it in a trust so no estate taxes just has to pay asinine price to buyout his siblings so the farm can stay in the family.
View quoted note →stock up on weapons and don’t pay the tax
Such a sad state of affairs.
The govt destroys value. It is the nature of the entity
Sad story. The slow death of farm lands is a travesty. We need to raise more farmers and prepare estate for better transitions. All this for tax they can print for free. Sad state of the world.
They just don't care.
Also, who the fuck muted or reported this post?
Thats a long way to write 'Starmer is a wanker'
Not just starmer... the whole damn lot of them..😔
Luckliy i don't care about them either...
And someone with a jealous streak i would imagine 🤷
Not sure it's worth the prison time. But then again, id have to be caught first and taken alive second... 🤣🤣
I'm sure Rupert will ditch the tax. I think he wants to remove inheritance tax altogether along with about half the state. 🤞
What a communist system in practice looks like.
The tyranny of democracy at work. Democracy is afterall the entity that empowers the state to force taxes out of the people.
parasite kills the host
That all happened in a month?!
We will have to wait and see. I like what i see there, but i don't see a plan to deal with the civil service and to roll back the changes blair made.
Till i see that I'll verify before trusting..
Most people do NOT hate the government and politicians enough.
Govt is led by money who is unshackled by law, since money makes the laws nowadays. Before i'd state a one liner like you did - even suggesting, that ALL govts destroy value on purpose, just means you never asked question after question. Why is it, that my govt destroys value. Do all govts destroy values. Why not in Switzerland, why not in Skandinavia. If not what is different? Some smart ppl thought about it: I can highly recommend reading "why nations fail".
Why is it that beef in southamerica is so cheap? Who demands free trade? Who likes to ship goods around the globe. I can think of some multinational corporations who have a very influencial lobby, and they 'support' their candidates with substantial pocket money, so they can present themselves in future election. So who again is stripping farmers from their land?
Most people cannot think two thoughts in sequence. Who again controls the government? Is it the voters or the misled voters or just money, influencing politics on every front possible?
This makes me want to cry.
Can’t you just take out debt against the property to pay the taxes?
Keeps the Ponzi rolling
It's a hypothetical 😉
Irony with the carbon credits is that the Brazilian beef is farmed on deforested Amazon.
Kind of beside the point; but also a very interesting point
Beautifully illustrated. Any sane leadership would make farmers and farmland a matter of national security. This is so obviously an insidious attack on the people of the UK and their wellbeing.
The father should have gifted the property to his son, when he was still alive. Might have solved the problem. Or not?
Gifts are capped at like 300k
Property tax is a huge scam. Just because someone paid x amount for a property down the road, doesnt mean your property is now worth that. You should only pay tax on what YOU paid for your property.
fucking fiat
Google Potentially Exempt Transfer (PET)
It’s hard to look at this situation and not conclude conspiracy
True, I think it's coming along with the inevitable screeching from the usual suspects 😆
I case you don't hate government enough yet...
... and shit like this is happening everywhere, not just in Great Britain...
View quoted note →You have to read this #optout
View quoted note →Just pirates being pirates, nothing new under the sun.
Or sold to him. For exactly what the property value is and payable in like 50 yr installments interest free of course.
Father time don't leave anyone out.
View quoted note →Oh, I see. So it would not have solved the problem.
You know, same happens everywhere. Even with Brazilians.
love money and economic system
A revolution is coming.
Which is the plan... "passive income" is a satanic parasite on the ass of society.
100%
Chasing a fiction...
Probably yes. But with 4% interest on that you'll have to pay a good fifth of what the farm makes in profit in a good year just on interest.
The system working as intended, against our interests. "You will own nothing ..."
Yet there will be some blue haired vegan somewhere celebrating and failing to realise that "you will own nothing" includes wokes and vegans.
This could have all been avoided. Why didn’t they incorporate the farm ? It is brainwashing at grand scale and blatant theft by the government.
You shouldn't be paying property tax (i.e. rent) on something you own.
The slight-of-hand, is that most people (at least in the US), own "real estate" and not "property".
The part that stands out: the tax threshold was designed to capture windfall wealth. The son didn't receive a windfall — he received a farm that produces £28k/year. The paper value was inflated by hedge funds he had nothing to do with.
So the threshold works as intended. It captured him anyway.
This is what happens when institutions are built on proof-of-worthiness (or proof-of-wealth) without accounting for how the metrics get distorted by actors outside the system they're meant to measure. The son's situation doesn't fit the category the threshold was built for, but the category doesn't know that.
Almost. They own a real estate **title**. There is a land registry and you pay to get listed on it and have your title defended.
The title is the property, not the land, but you do actually own the title.
The title to something is proof of ownership. So I'll remove your "almost". They don't own a title to their property, the land. The title of real estate is a "color of title" to the land.
Paying for defense makes sense. It's a mafia technique.
A rancher near me is in a similar situation, not because of taxes but because his kids don't want to continue ranching. His land is worth millions because of zoning restrictions and local population growth. I don't know what he makes, but the ranch produces about 50 calves every spring (each of which is named), which he raises and butchers.
Then just don't pay. See how that works out for you. You don't have to pay for titles, in some jurisdictions, for one of three reasons:
- there is no functioning title law and have fun with that
- the land is completely worthless, so there is no competition for it, so why bother
- the state retains all titles and only lets you lease, with little recourse.
You know where nobody is moving to? Those places. You don't have to defend your right to possess and control land there because nobody else wants it.
Humans only have a natural right to property they can defend. Not to everything that has come into their possession through some accident of fate. Part of leaving an inheritance is arranging and maintaining the property, so that they don't lose the inheritance.
If the value of the property goes up, that increases the cost of enforcing your title, so you have to be more productive to cover that cost.
Everyone wringing their hands over this are being ridiculous. They only own anything, themselves, because their ancestors chopped the original owners' heads off and took it. The title you pay for means nobody can easily do that to you because the law will take it back and lock them up.
You must be thinking that I'm saying something that I'm not. Enjoy yourself.
Fucking Wild that a $3.2M property is a liability….
Sad story. But there’s a different side to it, that’s full of questions. Why didn’t the farmer act to secure his legacy? Rising land prices due to speculation is hardly a new phenomenon. Did he think about creating an offshore trust and transfer ownership of the farm to this trust? Then set up an offshore operations company with him and everyone working on the farm as employee? That way it might have been possible to save on taxes in general and ensure the survival of his farm. Any thoughts?
Maybe intentional to control food production.
Agree.
