Unless you are a Bear or such, and have been hibernating, you will have heard of the plight of Farmers with Inheritance Tax.

A bank chappy was interviewed on Radio Ulster and he said that Farmers are asset rich but cash poor. This has been echoed ad nauseam and is probably true for the vast majority of Farmers. Makes one wonder why they bother? The Bank chappy said that in Norn Iron the price of a good acre of farm land was currently £18k. Seems a lot. I believe land costs £10,000 per acre in England. Rental yield is about £100 an acre in Norn Iron and England. That would be a return of 1% or less. Why would you buy land if you could rent it so cheaply?

The Bank chappy went on to say that a farmer with a farm of 100 acres in Norn Iron could expect to make a return of 2% in a good year and 1% in a bad one i.e. £18k to £36k and that is ignoring the value of buildings and machinery. Why do they bother? But they do. By any measure it’s not a commercial proposition.

The Farmers who are protesting have been led up the garden path (or at least the majority of them). If it is accepted that they want to pass on farms to their offspring, so that they can continue the family farming tradition, then the value of the land should not matter to them. 

They actually have two problems. First land is priced far too highly. If it were commercially priced, as an agricultural asset, IHT issues would be very rare i.e. nearly all estates’ value would fall way below IHT limits. Also land priced on the basis of rental values could be purchased relatively cheaply by aspiring farmers. Secondly farmers are paid way too little for their produce. Inheritance Tax is not to blame for this and that is what they should be protesting about.

When it comes to IHT James (and others) is the problem not the solution (unlike bagless vacuum cleaners). It has been widely reported for some time that James has been buying up ‘000s of acres of land in Lincolnshire and other spots. Not to produce food but as a shelter from IHT. James might be a good man on a tractor but more likely he leaves that for others. James has oodles of cash. He might be a billionaire even. He will have been told cash is a bad asset for IHT purposes. For James land is a financial asset (not agricultural) and for tax purposes he does not care what price it is. In fact the more expensive the better. He converts cash into land and does some farming but that is not his main aim. It would scupper his plans somewhat if land crashed in value but he doesn’t think that will happen.

What happens when James (and other fine fellows like Jeremy) starts throwing money at land with apparent abandon. The price shoots up just like property in London when criminals from all over world stashed and laundered their criminal gains there. There are loads of empty properties in the finest parts of London where no rent is taken. Just like James, making a return is not their priority.

So there you have it. Farmers protesting about the wrong things and there is Jeremy out pontificating with them. They think he’s one of them. High land values is a big problem for them but Jeremy loves high land values. Twas ever thus. Decent hard working people being lead up the garden path by monied conmen. Over to you Nigel (and Donald J Trumpet).

Clearly James knows he cannot take it with him. A wise wee man once told me that that shrouds don’t have pockets . Mind you his pockets were stuffed with cash. Actually he was a rather silly wee man.
 
Jeremy is a slabber. How did he get that job in Millionaire? Tarrant must be turning in his grave if he is in it. It’s like giving Humphries the Mastermind gig. A face fit for radio if ever there was one. As for Paxman poor old Bamber must be distraught whereever he is.