Rachel Reeves’s tax raid on farmers will cost the Treasury almost £2billion, analysis has found. This is despite Treasury claims that it could boost the public purse by as much as £1.8billion.
Family businesses slashing investment and jobs will lead to a slowdown in the economy, the research by independent consultants at CBI Economics showed. Family Business UK, the industry group which commissioned the research, said: “Far from increasing tax receipts into the Treasury and stimulating the economic growth the Government is trying to deliver, the changes to BPR and APR in the October Budget achieve the opposite.”
The research estimates that changes to Business Property Relief (BPR) and Agricultural Property Relief (APR) will backfire and, instead of saving money, cost the Treasury £1.9billion by 2030.
Senior Tory MP Esther McVey said: “You couldn’t make it up. The family farm tax introduced by Rachel from Accounts was meant to bring into the treasury £1.8billion, but it now appears it will lose the treasury £2billion. That is Reeves-onomics!”
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The organisation said the Government risked “inadvertently undermining [its] mission of sustained economic growth, which we agree is an absolute necessity to deliver prosperity and improved living standards for working people”.
Inheritance tax reforms are set to come into force next April.
Under the changes, inherited farms worth more than £1million will be taxed at a rate of 20%, having been shielded from the levies for decades.
A 20% rate will also be charged on inherited business assets over £1million when someone dies.
The Daily Express has demanded a U-turn on the policy since the Chancellor’s Budget in October with our Save Britain’s Family Farms crusade.
Tom Bradshaw, president of the National Farmers Union, said: “This report must serve as a wake-up call to Treasury, or we face major cuts to investment and significant job losses.”
A Treasury spokesman said: “Our reforms to Agricultural and Business Property Reliefs will mean three-quarters of estates will continue to pay no inheritance tax at all, while the remaining quarter will pay half the inheritance tax that most estates pay, and payments can be spread over 10 years, interest-free.
“This is a fair and balanced approach which helps fix the public services we all rely on.”
