American President Donald Trump proved an unlikely ally for the UK’s hard-pressed farmers when he revealed during a visit to this country that the US no longer taxed farmers’ estates after their demise.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer looked taken aback during a televised meeting at the Turnberry hotel in South Ayrshire when Trump told the world that he had abandoned estate tax – similar to this country’s inheritance tax – on farmers.
Trump pointed out that farmers keep their businesses not to make money but because it is their “way of life” and said many US farmers had taken their own lives because of worries over paying the bill after inheriting farmland from their parents.
“Well, we ended the estate tax. There is no estate tax on farmers,” he said, adding: “A lot of these farms, they don’t make a lot of money but it’s a way of life – they love it.”
Pointing out that no farmer he had spoken to had ever said they would rather live in Trump’s “beautiful” penthouse in Manhattan than work the land, he said: “They don’t want to do anything else” and added: “They love that dirt; dirt is the most beautiful thing they have ever seen.”
Trump explained that the US had been “losing a lot of people to suicide” because they had borrowed money to pay the estate tax and then found themselves being chased by “ruthless banks” that wanted their money back.
“We have totally ended the estate tax in those situations,” he said, adding: “So when a parent leaves the farm to the kids, they don’t have to worry about their local, possibly unfriendly, banker coming in and stealing their farm.”
In response, NFU President Tom Bradshaw said: “While the farming environment in the US and UK are very different, farmers in both countries are land rich but cash poor and the president was right to point that out.
“The US recognised that such a tax wasn’t conducive to running family businesses and producing food, and that it was having a detrimental impact on farmers’ wellbeing. As is right in that situation, it took action to rectify the policy.
“While we are not asking the UK Government to completely abolish inheritance tax, we are asking them for some introspection. The current policy fails to achieve the Government’s stated intentions of closing a loophole and protecting family farms. Our ‘clawback’ method provides the solution; it allows Treasury to raise revenues without tearing apart farming families, and removes the extreme mental toll this is placing on some members of our community.”
The Country Land and Business Association (CLA)’s director of external affairs Jonathan Roberts added: “Everyone knows this is a disastrous policy. Donald Trump knows it. Left wing tax campaigners know it. Backbench Labour MPs know it. I’m sure deep down Treasury Ministers know it too. But most of all, farmers and family business owners across the land know of the devastating impact these reforms will have.
“It’s time for ministers to take a deep breath and accept they’ve got it wrong. Every day they carry on pretending their reforms will work is another day the economy is being harmed.”
Pictured: Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer meets US President Donald Trump © Number 10, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
