Readers respond to an impassioned plea for understanding by Clare Wise after the government made farms subject to inheritance tax
Clare Wise’s emotional representation of the family farm offers an excellent insight into the importance of maintaining generational continuity (My family has grown Britain’s food for 140 years. Here’s what politicians don’t understand about farming, 27 November). She rightly condemns the potentially devastating effects that inheritance tax (IHT) on farmland will have on many family farms. Enforced sales will accelerate the break-up and loss of smaller and medium-sized farms, favouring accumulation of land owned as investments and for tax avoidance.
I support IHT and other forms of tax on wealthy estates, investment properties and farmland sold off for development. But this tax is misplaced, introduced without due consultation and pays no attention to the effects it will have on many farming families who will be unable to afford to pay it from farm income. The government needs to listen to the many voices of protest and have the courage to review this tax.
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