LJ Accountancy

20/11/2024

I was proud to stand with the farming community at the rally in London yesterday. It was interesting listening to the speakers and talking to many different farmers throughout the day to better understand the difficulties and challenges they face. What stood out for me was the overwhelming desire to enable farming to continue down the generations. Farmers consider themselves as guardians of the land, maintaining the countryside and protecting rural communities. The value of the farm is irrelevant to them (or was until the proposed budget changes) as they have no desire to ever sell and therefore will never see the cash.
I hope that yesterday will make the government look further into impact of their proposals and make changes.

Every farmer does need to take professional advice to assess their situation and exposure to IHT before taking action to minimise the impact. There is no one size fits all solution, there are things that can be done but the right action to take will depend on many things (eg. business structure, farm values, machinery values, liabilities and financial commitments, personal investments, family situations, income requirements, profit levels, health, purchase costs / probate values, historic gift relief claims) and a crystal ball would be very helpful!

I have already got several appointments booked with a number of my agri clients throughout December and hope to see you all before the new year.

20/11/2024

Pembrokeshire’s future farmers were represented by Eddie from Windsor farm who did a great job pedalling his tractor 🚜 in Westminster.

🚜🙏 Thank you to everyone that supported the farmers today 🙏🥾

We went to London in the hope that the government listens. We NEED to ensure we can continue to farm, putting food on your tables and that the next generation can do so too.

🚜 Eddie was

Thank you to Pembroke Farmers Club for arranging the transport 🚌 tafvalleycoaches

🚜🐄 🐂🐑🐐🌾 🚜 🐄 🐂🐑🐐🌾 🚜

17/11/2024

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/700138

We think that changing inheritance tax relief for agricultural land will devastate farms nationwide, forcing families to sell land and assets just to stay on their property. We urge the government to keep the current exemptions for working farms.

14/11/2024

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/labour-investigating-true-figure-of-farmers-impacted-by-inheritance-tax-raid-in-budget/ar-AA1u1ixt?ocid=entnewsntp&pc=LCTS&cvid=e5623a8908344330b0ba0d654bab37f6&ei=10

Around 10,000 farmers are expected to march against Rachel Reeves' tax raid next week.

13/11/2024

📣We will stand with farmers on Tuesday 19th November in Westminster to protest the family farm tax!

🪧The Countryside Alliance will be standing with the protest in Westminster planned for next Tuesday 19 November (11am START-2pm, further timings and details to come, arrive earlier).

This demonstration will take place alongside a separate NFU lobby of MPs for its members, which is at full capacity. This is your opportunity to stand in support of our farmers and the countryside. It is important that you register your attendance so that the organisers can keep track of numbers and relay information to you about the event and proceedings directly.

This is not a Countryside Alliance demonstration, but it is an important opportunity to show solidarity with our farming members, supporters and wider community at a protest organised by working farmers.

✍️Please do register your attendance NOW using this link➡️ https://agriwebmedia.typeform.com/to/v4NNbWxh

13/11/2024

13/11/2024

𝗪𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗴𝗼 𝘁𝗼 𝗟𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗼𝗻 𝗻𝗲𝘅𝘁 𝗧𝘂𝗲𝘀𝗱𝗮𝘆?🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧🚜

🚌𝗖𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵 𝗮 𝗹𝗶𝗳𝘁 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝘀🚌
𝗕𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻 - 𝗞𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘁𝗼𝗻 -> 𝗟𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗼𝗻
𝗞𝗻𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝗼𝗻 - 𝗟𝘂𝗱𝗹𝗼𝘄 -> 𝗟𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗼𝗻
𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 -> 𝗟𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗼𝗻

☎️𝗖𝗮𝗹𝗹 | 𝟬𝟳𝟱𝟯𝟰 𝟱𝟯𝟮 𝟰𝟲𝟴 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗮 𝘀𝗲𝗮𝘁!

01/11/2024

https://www.fwi.co.uk/news/nfu-plans-london-rally-over-agricultural-policy-future

Farmers from across the UK are set to converge on London for a rally against the government’s agricultural policies which they say put the future of

30/10/2024

I am really angry following the anti growth, anti business budget which has really kicked farmers in the stomach.

When labour said they wanted to help working people what they actually meant was that if your an employee your tax and NI deducted from you gross pay will not increase. The employer however will have to increase the minimum wage to £12.21 (equivalent to £1400 per annum) and also pay more employers NI due to rate increase to 15% on earnings above £96 (previously £175) per week. So in total a minimum wage employee will now cost about £2150 extra per annum. The employers national insurance allowance increase from £5k to £10k will help how much will depend on employee numbers and salaries. If you are a labour intensive business such as hospitality or care sector these changes will hurt.

The £1million business asset disposal relief is still available but if you are planning to sell your business you may want to consider doing it sooner rather than later as the rate of tax on the gain will increase from 10% to 14% in April 2025 and to 18% in April 2026.

Capital gains tax will increase from 10% and 20% (basic and higher rates) to 18% and 24% which is the same as the rate already in place for residential property.

The chancellor stated that VCT schemes will continue to 2025, which probably means that they will be removed after that date.

A cruel blow has been dealt to grieving relatives inheriting pensions as these will become liable to inheritance tax.

The inheritance tax nil rate band will remain at £325k until 2028 and the residence nil rate band (which you get if you leave your home to direct descendants) continues to exist at £175k.

The change that I am furious about is the restriction of agricultural and business property relief for inheritance tax to £1million. Any agricultural/business property above the £1million will be liable to 20% IHT (50% relief on the full rate of 40%). Labour said this £1million allowance is there for small family farms. I looked at land agents websites today and there was no farm under 100acres for less than £1.35m. In my option a viable family farm needs to be a least 200acres so that’s probably more like £2.5m before you start totting up the value of the equipment. You don’t get much of a tractor for less than £100k these days. This change will mean that many families will have to sell off land to meet Inheritance Tax bills seriously affecting the long term viability of the farm.

I passionately believe that there should be incentives for businesses to grow and create employment, rewards that justify the risks and sacrifices. People should be encouraged to work hard, invest and save into pensions etc.

This budget is very disheartening but it’s good to know a pint 🍺 will be 1p cheaper down the pub (something labour 🤡 seem very proud of).

I will of course be looking at the budget in more detail over the coming weeks and meeting with experts to analyse and discuss various scenarios to ensure our clients benefit from tailored tax planning where required.