Northern Ireland farming inheritance tax crisis: Portrush farmer says new rules puts down over signing family farm over to son

Sammy Sharpe was speaking after Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced in the October budget that inheritance tax of 20% is to be applied to all farm assets worth over £1m.

A land valuation expert told MPs this week that typical Northern Ireland farms are worth between £4-6m and that some 200 a year are likely to be impacted.

The Stormont Department of Agriculture is opposing the plans, estimating that around 50% of NI’s 24,000 farms are under threat from the new rules.

The concern is that half NI farms would have to be sold to raise money to pay the new inheritance tax bills.

Hundreds of tractors brought Whitehall to a standstill on Monday in protest against the plans, as farmers from across the UK led an angry protest.

Mr Sharpe farms his 114 acre dairy farm in Portrush with his son Steven. Together, they manage around 100 dairy cattle and 100 young stock.

"I think the general reaction from farmers to the new rules is that they are concerned and disillusioned," Mr Sharpe told the News Letter.

"It has just been sprung on us. Labour governments are renowned for taxing you to the hilt - but I think this has come out of the blue."

He notes there was no public consultation.

"I would have thought there should have been - but are they going to listen to anybody anyway?"

Like most other farmers, he is very unclear as to what the new facts and thresholds actually are.

The Treasury has formally advised that loopholes could give a £3m threshold - but the Ulster Farmers Union says expert advice is that this is impossible to qualify for.

Mr Sharpe intends to discuss the issue with his accountant in January when his tax return is complete.

"I don't know a terrible lot about it, to be honest with you. Just on what you read in the paper. It is concerning."

"It is the 'not knowing' more about it that is concerning. You hear you could maybe get up to £3m of a concession but until you get that in writing I don't know whether that would be the case or not."

He notes the angry tractor protest in Whitehall on Monday. "I don't think the farming lobby is going to back down too easily."

His farm is formally owned by himself and his wife but he hopes to sign it over to his son in due course.

"But this all puts a big question mark over that."

He affirms that many farmers are concerned that they would have to sell their farms to pay the new inheritance tax bills.

"That could well be the case - though I would need to be talking to some professional to get figures."

He would like to see the current rules retained.

"When I got our farm my uncle signed it over to me more than seven years before he died; consequently, there was no inheritance tax."

Asked what he would like to see the UK government do now, he replies: "I would hope they would do a U turn, but I mean, that's probably asking too much."