Farming Group Newsletter: Issue 26

There’s Always Something!

Welcome to Issue 26 of our Farming Group Newsletter for Spring/Summer 2025, our first since the shock Inheritance Tax (IHT) announcements were made in the Autumn Budget 2024. Ironically for many, the autumn, winter and spring conditions so far, despite a few pockets of wet and dry spells, have probably been the easiest of recent years in terms of cultivations and planting out in the fields. The phrase ‘there’s always something’ comes to mind, and this is a big ‘something.’

Gift Allowances for Inheritance Tax Planning

We have been meeting with many concerned farmers and landowners over the impact that the IHT changes might have to them and their businesses. Every situation is unique and needs the understanding not just of the business, but the wider farming family. It is a topic too large to cover in significant detail in a newsletter, but we start with an article from Mike Blackledge who looks at some simple ways to reduce your estate using gift allowances.

Funding Opportunities for Farmers & Making Tax Digital for Income Tax

We then move on to a piece by Paul Wood who considers ever important funding opportunities for farmers following the slashing of Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) receipts, before Richard Alecock reminds us of the incoming changes to Making Tax Digital for Income Tax.

The Land Use Framework & Options on Retaining the Family Farm

Coupled with the IHT changes and BPS reductions, we then have the continually changing goalposts of land use. Ben Kilby discusses these challenges that are likely to face farmers in years to come, before I recap different farming arrangements and consider how these might be more useful than ever with the incoming changes to IHT, and new generations coming through.

There is no doubt that the announcements from government over the past nine months have shocked many farming families to the core but, if we can take any good news from all of this, it is that families who perhaps used to brush succession planning aside are now seriously beginning to consider what their succession plan might be. Perhaps that in itself will actually make the younger generations feel more involved and connected to the family farm.

Click here to read Issue 26 of our Farming Newsletter.

Get In Touch

For more information or advice on any of the topics covered in Issue 26 of our Farming Group Newsletter, please do contact your local Whitings office or your usual Whitings contact.