Farmers vow to keep up pressure on UK Government over inheritance tax changes
The Ulster Farmers Union have vowed to keep up pressure on the UK Government over changes to inheritance tax.
It comes after lines of tractors took to streets across Northern Ireland as part of a UK-wide protest by farmers against the announced cap on Agricultural Property Relief (APR).
From April 2026, the first £1 million of combined business and agricultural assets will continue to attract no inheritance tax.
But for assets over £1 million, inheritance tax will apply with 50% relief, at an effective rate of 20%.
It has been estimated that almost 50% of farms in Northern Ireland will be impacted.
Farmers have argued the bills will put their farm out of business and prevent their children being able to continue the business.
In Northern Ireland there were seven tractor runs on Saturday covering all six counties, and two in Co Down, organised by the Ulster Farmers Union (UFU) many bearing posters which read Save Our Family Farms and UFU flags.
On Sunday, William Irvine, president of the UFU, said the rallies put the issue back on the political agenda for 2025.
'Our approach to the issue is to keep steady pressure on, and as each week goes by, there is building evidence, every report that comes out, and every new analysis tends to be support our position on this,' he told the BBC's Sunday Politics programme.
'Our own Department of Agriculture, their take is that it will impact significantly, 50% of the farms.
'Not only will that have severe implications for the family farms and the rural economy of Northern Ireland, it is a major threat to UK food security.
'We tend to have a smaller size farm, high value land and we tend to be owner occupiers, and even though some of our farms may be run as partnerships, the collateral tends to be in one name and that's what makes us so vulnerable to this tax.
'We are so vulnerable because of the high value we have, as high a value for land as there is in the United Kingdom and the Government are very keen to point out there are ways around this.
'All those mitigations that they say are there, all those mitigations come with a risk and come with a cost and this is what puts our makes our folks so nervous and puts their agricultural industry at risk.'
He said Northern Ireland politicians are united on the issue in agreement with the UFU.
'We are struggling to get into the Chancellor's office, and we're going to maintain the pressure here,' he said.
'This doesn't come into until spring 2026 so it's continuous and increasing pressure as we go forward – we have to get through that door.'
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