Sort out ‘tax dodge’ farmers’ call from Devon MPs

Devon’s MPs are urging the government to do more to protect the county’s family farms by sorting out ‘hobby farmers’ who dabble in the industry as a tax dodge.

During a debate at Westminster they said local farmers believe the government is callous and indifferent to their welfare and fate.
Liberal Democrat MP for Honiton and Sidmouth Richard Foord said it is important to distinguish between genuine farmers – some of whom protested on the streets of London recently – from ‘hobby’ businesses that sprang up alongside them.
“We know there has been a tendency to use a farm as a tax dodge,” he said. “The farmers came to London to say there has to be a way of discriminating between those who have bought a few cows as a tax dodge and those who earn a living from the land.”
Recent changes in farm funding and inheritance tax have left many farmers fearful over their futures, the county’s MPs told a parliamentary committee.
Conservative MP Sir Geoffrey Cox said the government’s recent changes were ‘treasury-driven and tin-eared’.
The MP for Torridge and Tavistock told rural affairs minister Daniel Zeichner: “No Devon farmers continue in farming to grow rich.
“They do it because it’s a way of life and because of the pride they take in producing some of the finest food and produce on the planet.
“They also do it because, for many, their families have farmed in that place and in those communities for generations. The names of their forefathers, engraved on the tombstones of their churches and chapels, bear witness to that continuity.”
Mr Cox said many local farms supported several families, but incomes had been falling sharply.
And, he said, they were at the mercy of the political ’weather’.
He went on: “They regard the political weather as being even more random and unpredictable than the weather itself. Recently it has created a perfect storm.”
During the same debate, South Devon Liberal Democrat MP Caroline Voaden said 86 per cent of local farmers said they would be hit by the changes in inheritance tax, well in excess of the figures claimed by the government.”
In her budget last month, the chancellor announced that farmers’ estates would start to pay inheritance tax of 20 per cent on farms following their death, with an exemption of £1 million per person. Rachael Reeves claims this means married couples passing farms to children or grandchildren shouldn’t pay inheritance tax on the first £3 million of their assets. The standard inheritance tax rate is 40 per cent.
But Ms Voaden to the parliamentary committee: “Farmers will be forced to sell land that has been in their families for generations,” she said. “Every single farmer I have spoken to says this will be the case.”
And, she said the impact would be felt far beyond farms, with vets, feed merchants and farm suppliers also feeling the effects.
“Rural communities are so often the lowest priority for the government,” she said.
Conservative South West Devon MP Rebecca Smith said a whole generation of farmers who had expected to take on family farms were now worried about their futures.