The money being passed down has already been taxed, often multiple times—whether as income, capital gains, or other forms of taxation throughout the individual’s lifetime. To tax it yet again upon death is not only punitive but also deeply unfair to families who have worked hard, saved diligently, and wish to pass on their assets to the next generation.
It penalises responsible financial planning and erodes the principle of rewarding hard work and saving. Abolishing inheritance tax would respect the rights of individuals to freely pass on their legacy without government interference, ensuring that families can preserve what they’ve earned for their loved ones, rather than handing it over to the taxman.
Specifically regarding farmers, we need an unequivocal promise from both Conservative and Reform, not only that they will reinstate the current deal on their first day in office, but that they will have HM Revenue & Customs reimburse any inheritance tax that became due between April 2026 and their first day in office which is in excess of the current deal, with interest. Those promises should enable a fund to be established as of April 2026 to pay the inheritance tax on the farmers’ estates and get it back from HMRC at the latest in July 2029.
Whilst I agree with your sentiment, I believe that at the moment it would be best to halve the rate to 20% & double the threshold to £750.000 & look to reduce it further in future.
Totally correct. Inheritance tax exists to subjugate the newly middle class. Work your way up, die, and it’s back to square one for your grandchildren - eliminating the creation of generational wealth and any chance of independence of family from the state!
It also raises a tiny fraction of a percent of total state revenue: it exists only to wage class war on those who inevitably have their heads screwed on right.
Based on the fact that the estate of the deceased has already been taxed at whatever level as the money left has been earned the inheritance tax is fundamentally wrong.
It’s a taxation for the sake of taxation. Put your money in a trust fund where it can’t be touched
I inherited my dad’s share in a house. I’ll most likely not get access to it for about 20 years as the co-owner won’t move out. When I finally get it I’ll have to pay CGT. We are taxed at every point.
We shouldn’t simple repeal Inheritance Tax, but also Gift Tax.
The issue is around unearned income, when you give someone a gift with value or they inherit assets, in the eyes of tax laws based on income, this is deemed unearned income and HMRC will find ways to bring these taxes back in, but by stealth.
Therefore, the whole concept of tax on work/effort, namely income tax has to be revisited.
It might reasonably be considered in teh way that double jeopardy once was. Until recently, you couldn’t be tried twice for the same crime. (Something else that perhaps needs a serious review?)
In the same vein, one should not be taxed twice on the same income/profit.
Of course that would mean getting rid of VAT but is was only introduced to pay for membership of the EEC so that shouldn’t be a problem surely?
For decades, successive governments have increased the tax burden on British citizens.
Most recently, and straight out of the Communist Manifesto, they would abolish “bourgeois” private property – private ownership of the “means of production”. What else is the new tax on farmers?
And Rachel Reeves’ raid on private pensions - bringing pension pots under the IHT net - hard earned money diverted from our children to the bottomless pit of a Socialist state?
We need our politicians to dramatically cut spending, pledge themselves to living within reduced means, and return to low tax and small government.
Conservative governments have failed badly on this front, not wanting to alienate some voters. The principle in itself is purely socialist, to bring everyone down to the lowest, equal level. Apparently it brings in very little to the Exchequer. More to the point, it is probably self defeating, as people with wealth are encouraged to move overseas to protect their inheritance, this ensuring future revenues from and kind of tax in their estates is lost forever. illogical and self defeating.
