Letter: Inheritance tax plans will have minimal impact on family farms

They have had a hard time recently with the awful weather, being squeezed by the supermarkets, and the self-inflicted problems arising from Brexit.

I can understand the growing frustration and anger within the farming community but it is nonsense to express this by attacking the proposed abolition of inheritance tax when it will have virtually no effect on the vast majority of ordinary farmers.

The impact on the family farm will be minimal as it is aimed at the rich and corporations who are buying farmland as a tax avoidance scheme.

This has increased since 2000, causing the price of farmland to triple and putting land outside reach of the genuine young farmer.

Last year in England 56% of agricultural land sold was bought by non-farmers and one million acres were taken out of farming mostly for tax avoidance purposes.

This is also happening in Northern Ireland.

There is a danger that the recent rally here will dissipate much of the goodwill generated by local farmers over the years.

The public do not support tax avoidance and recalls that Jeremy Clarkson admitted buying his farm to avoid tax, and that James Dyson bought 33,000 acres of farmland and relocated his business to Singapore.

The public believes everyone should pay a fair share towards the cost of the NHS and other public services and that no one should be exempt from taxes, not even the rich.

I am also sure that very few were impressed by the many pleas of poverty and the disasters predicted by speakers when they realise that not many, if any, with assets less than £3 million will actually pay the tax.

Brian Wilson, Bangor