Budget taxes could hit farmers

10 March 1998

Budget taxes could hit farmers

A LEADING accountant warned a range of additional taxes in the forthcoming Budget could hit the farming industry.

Robert Black, of Saffrey Champness, in Edinburgh, said farmers and landowners would suffer if Chancellor Gordon Brown made any changes to capital gains tax.

He said this was one area where there is likely to be some adjustment.

The high price of farmland in recent times has often baffled practical farmers, but one of the underlying reasons has been the highly favourable reinvestment options available. This has allowed non-farming enterprises to sell up and invest the proceeds into land, but Mr Black believes this loophole may be changed in the forthcoming budget.

It is also thought that there may be some changes to inheritance tax – mainly relating to gifts made tax free while the person was alive. Farmland has virtually remained tax-free as far as inheritance tax goes, but Mr Black speculates as too how long this exemption can remain in place.

• The Scotsman 10/03/98 page 28