The UK Government’s reported plans to introduce a lifetime cap on the value of gifts that someone can pass on before they die would sound the end for family farming, Harriet Cross MP has warned.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves is reportedly considering a fresh inheritance tax grab that would prevent parents from making unlimited tax-free gifts to their children.
At present, unlimited amounts of money and assets can be gifted to friends and relatives without paying any eventual inheritance tax, so long as the transfer happens at least seven years before the person giving the gift dies.
But a lifetime cap on gifts would allow the Treasury to raid funds given from parents to children many years earlier to boost the tax intake.
Gordon and Buchan MP Harriet Cross has described the move as “despicable” and believes it will make passing on a farm at any time impossible.
It comes as Reeves refused to back down over Labour’s family farm tax on her first visit to Northern Ireland yesterday, stating it was a “right and fair decision” that she was happy with, claiming it will “protect the incomes of ordinary people”.
Gordon and Buchan MP Harriet Cross, who has been a leading voice against the family farm tax, said: “This heartless Labour UK Government really has no limits.
“Rachel Reeves is coming back for more, but now it’s not just farmers who are at risk from these damaging tax raids on families.
“Nothing is safe from this Chancellor – Rachel Reeves is taxing and axing the future of families to fund her failures.
“Labour’s family farm tax means farmers will now have to pass farms on early, but a lifetime cap will likely make passing on a farm at any time impossible.
“An inheritance tax transfer cap, plus the family farm tax, will be the end of family farming.”
On Rachel Reeves’ comments during her visit to Northern Ireland about the family farm tax, Ms Cross added: “It’s appalling that the Chancellor does not class farmers as ‘normal working people’ and is using the industry as a guinea pig for her failures.
“She is completely out of touch with rural life and the damage she is causing to our nation’s food security.
“The lack of empathy she continues to show towards the plight of our farmers who are the engine of our economy is despicable.
“We will not give up the fight. I, along with the wider agricultural industry, will continue to fight against the family farm tax to the very end.”
