Jim Allister

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Roger. In Northern Ireland, land prices are in some cases twice as high as in other parts of the United Kingdom. The consequence of that is that the farm tax threshold will be reached more quickly and the burden will be even greater. But the real cruelty of the tax is this. In many cases, when one generation take over a farm, they naturally want to grow, expand and improve their productivity. Very often, during a lifetime, extra land will be bought. That extra land is bought with money on which tax has already been paid. So this is a double taxation: people buy land with profits they have made on which they have paid their tax, then when they die, the Government come looking again. That is so unfair, particularly when it is family farms being crucified by that tax. I understand that there are people exploiting the market who are interested not in farming, but in tax relief, and own land for that purpose. The Government should hit them with all the might they can with the 40% inheritance tax, but exempt the genuine farmers—those who have a farm business number; those who are in receipt of direct payments; those who are genuine, active farmers. If the Government exempted them and went harder after those exploiting the system, they would probably have the same return at the end of it. Would that not be far more equitable than what is being proposed?