Agricultural tax 'being considered'
THE taxation of agricultural land is being considered to raise Government revenue by the Department of Finance and Personnel, under Minister Peter Robinson.
The revelation has been made in a response to a written question from SDLP MLA Declan O'Loan following discussion of the matter at the Assembly Committee for Finance and Personnel.
Last night Ulster Farmers' Union deputy president John Thompson said the news was "a very worrying development for farming".
Joe McDonald of the UFU added that the idea was "very unfair".
Mr Thompson said: "Farming has had a very difficult period over the last few years, and although some sectors are more profitable, certainly any form of tax would be very worrying."
Joe McDonald said he did not believe his organisation had ever been consulted in any way about this proposal.
He said: "What Northern Ireland needs is a fair rating system and if there was an additional burden placed on a small number of people – farmers and landowners – to raise extra revenue for the Government here locally, that would seem to be a very crude mechanism that would be an unfair way to tax the farm industry.
"It would be the last thing farmers need to hear under the circumstances when they are finding it difficult to deal with rising costs of livestock feed, etc.
"It sounds to me like something we would totally oppose."
Mr O'Loan said he believed the news would come as "an absolute shock to the whole farming and rural development sector".
He said: "I have never before heard any suggestion that the rating system might be extended to agricultural land. But there is no doubt that it is now under serious consideration.
"I do not believe that the incomes available from agricultural land are such that taxation of land can be considered. The role of farmers in maintaining and protecting our landscape is now clearly recognised to the extent that EU payments are available to them for this purpose. To tax that same land that is subject to subsidy for environmental reasons would be absurd."
Mr O'Loan called on the whole agricultural sector to address itself to this threat before it develops any further.
He said: "I believe that this suggestion should be dropped from the current review of the rating system."
Last night the Department of Finance and Personnel reiterated the answer they gave to Mr O'Loan when he asked what consideration the minister (Peter Robinson] was giving to the rating of agricultural land.
It said: "Under the current rating system agricultural land is not valued nor rated and there are no plans to do so.
"However as you are aware the current review of the new domestic rating system that was introduced by direct rule ministers in April 2007 is examining a wide range of options for change in the shorter and longer terms, which were included in terms of reference agreed by the Executive.
"Strand 2 of the review is addressing longer term issues including possible alternatives to the current arrangements and one such alternative is Land Value Taxation.
"I have commissioned the Ulster University to investigate the experience of other jurisdictions that have used Land Value Taxation."
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Monday 13 February 2012
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