The angst of another Budget has come and gone. It does seem that the positive points from the Budget of 2025 are the things that haven’t been touched. For example, the seven-year gifting rule and the CGT tax free uplift on death.
The announcement making the £1 million allowance transferable between spouses will bring some relief for widows/widowers and make will planning slightly easier. But, as we all know, it doesn’t go far enough for farming families where an elderly family member owns the bulk of the farming assets. For ‘younger’ farmers, time is on their side to plan effectively to mitigate future IHT liabilities. The impact of other Budget announcements on farming businesses is outlined in ‘Budget 2025 – what does it mean down on the farm.’
The run up to the last two Budgets has been hectic with succession planning for clients. Despite this, there are still many farming businesses that are at the very early stages of taking advice to re-structure their businesses to hopefully allow the next generation to carry on the business without the burden of a hefty IHT liability. There are also those farming businesses that are considering their future, with exiting the industry now being a serious consideration, which is sad to see. What has become evident is that collaboration between professional advisers, for example, accountants, solicitors and land agents, is vital when dealing with succession planning.
Since I joined the profession in the early 2000s, the pace of the change within the agricultural industry has been vast – the scale and complexity of agricultural machinery is just one such example. Looking back over the last five years alone, UK farming has certainly experienced its ups and down including:
- The COVID-19 pandemic, which sent shockwaves through the farming industry. Supply chains were disrupted overnight.
- The conflict in Ukraine, which sent grain prices and fertiliser prices soaring in 2022
- The subsidy scheme in England has seen significant change with the closure of the Basic Payment Scheme
- The fundamental changes to IHT allowances for APR and BPR assets from 6 April 2026
It will be interesting to see what the coming years will bring, which is explored further in ‘Farming – what will the next five years bring.’
We held our annual conference in September 2025, which was well supported with excellent speakers. The highlight for me being the conversation with Victoria Atkins MP (Conservative, Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) and Tim Farron MP (Liberal Democrat Spokesperson, Environment, Food and Rural Affairs). For those of you who missed the conference, a summary of the highlights can be found here.
As I write, my tenure as Chair and member of the advisory group is coming to an end. It has been a pleasure to work with fellow accountants, who are passionate about supporting their farming and rural clients, and also the ICAEW team who co-ordinate the Community’s activities. The work of the advisory group will continue under our new Chair, Jack Deal.
*the views expressed are the author's and not ICAEW's