Farmers’ protest: Why are farm owners demonstrating over inheritance tax?
Tens of thousands of farm owners expected to hold major demonstration in London on Tuesday
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Your support makes all the difference.Thousands of farmers are expected to protest near Westminster tomorrow to express their anger at changes put forward in Labour’s October Budget.
As many as 40,000 people are estimated to attend the event, forcing police and organisers to move the location from Trafalgar Square last-minute.
They will be gathering to protest Labour’s announced changes to inheritance tax (IHT) which will change how agricultural assets are taxed.
The prime minister has pushed back against criticism, telling reporters: “I am absolutely confident the vast majority of farms and farmers will not be affected by this.”
Here’s everything you need to know about the row:
What are the changes?
From April 2026, landowners who inherit agricultural assets worth more than £1 million will have to pay 20 per cent IHT on them.
These assets were previously entirely exempt from the tax under the agricultural property relief law.
Under the new rules, the 20 per cent levy – which is half of the standard 40 per cent rate – will be charged on assets above the £1 million threshold only.
Also unlike regular IHT, the levy can be paid in interest-free instalments over a ten-year period.
The exemption is stacked with other IHT relief measures. Inheritance tax is already not paid if the value of the estate being passed on is worth under £325,000, plus £175,000 for a home under certain conditions.
For a farm owned by two people, this means the effective tax-free amount passed on is £3 million when combining both their allowances plus each getting the £1 million agricultural relief.
How does this impact farmers?
Labour says three-quarters of estates will not be affected by the upcoming changes, but campaigners have taken issue with this.
According to Treasury analysis, around 500 estates will be impacted by the changes, with just the top 7 per cent of claims accounting for 40 per cent of the total value of the relief fund.
A release from the department adds: “It is not fair for a very small number of claimants each year to claim such a significant amount of relief, when this money could better be used to fund our public services.”
However, the Country Land and Business Association has said it is closer to 70,000 farms that will be affected. The new measure will mean “damaging family businesses and destabilising food security,” they add.
Economists have said this figure is slightly misleading. The 70,000 number does not reflect how many estates will have to pay inheritance tax each year, but rather how many are could be valued at over £1 million today.
Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) says: “The changes will affect a remarkably small number of some of the most valuable farms.”
Speaking to Sky News, he added that farms are “still more generously treated, actually, than farms used to be in decades past.”
Representatives from the NFU do not agree, saying just because a farm is worth more than £1 million, the farm who owns it will often be “cash poor.”
So far, Labour has resisted calls to reverse the measure – with ministers showing no intention to budge amid the growing protests.
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