British farmers protest against ‘tractor tax’ on inheritance

Farmers say the tax will destroy family farms and threaten food production, while the gov’t says it’s needed to raise funds.

British farmers have descended on London to call on the government to scrap inheritance tax rules on land ownership, which they say will destroy family-run farms.

On Tuesday, protesters held placards reading “no farmer, no food, no future” and “[Prime Minister Keir] Starmer the farmer harmer” around Parliament Square.

The measure, referred to by critics as the “tractor tax”, was announced last month as part of the new Labour government’s budget to raise funds.

However, the tax has caused backlash from farming communities, who say the government does not understand rural communities.

Before the announcement of the new budget, passing down farms through generations was tax-free.

However, from 2026, a 20 percent tax will be paid on the value of a farm above one million British pounds ($1.27 million).

Farmers, however, say that while their land and machinery are highly valued, their farms have low profit margins, meaning their children would have to sell their land to cover the tax bill.

One protesting farmer, Olly Harrison, told Al Jazeera, “We’re not tax dodgers. If we were making profits, tax our profits. But if we’re not making profits, we can’t pay inheritance tax.”

“We do have these huge land resources that have a value on paper, but in reality when you’re farming it doesn’t mean anything,” he said.

‘Disastrous human impacts’

Emma Robinson, 44, a farmer who joined the protests, told the Reuters news agency that her farm in northwest England has been in her family for 500 years and she plans to pass it down to her children.

“[Now] it’s being taken out of my hands by someone that’s been in Parliament for literally days,” she said.

The government has said the tax change would affect about 500 farms a year, based on the number of inherited farms in 2021-22, with the tax rate payable in instalments over 10 years.

However, farmers say the number of farms affected could be much higher, with the Country Land and Business Association estimating that 70,000 farms are worth more than one million pounds and could be affected.

National Farmers’ Union president Tom Bradshaw said the latest protests would continue for as long as necessary, telling Sky News that the government “cannot have a policy in place which has such disastrous human impacts and think we’re going to go quiet.”

However, the government has reiterated that the actual threshold before paying inheritance tax could be as much as three million pounds ($3.8m) once exemptions for each partner in a couple and for the farm property are considered.

Starmer said on Monday that “the vast majority of farms” will not be affected.