Quote Originally Posted by BCram View Post
Why do the rich a greater benefit? There must have been some reason, in the beginning, surely?

Just like working farmers whose family have farmed for years. It is understandable that they could have an asset value for their land that would put them into having to pay inheritance tax, and no cash to pay the tax. That's why they were exempt. Along comes some clever tax consultant and Dyson buys a farm which takes whatever he paid for it out of his inheritance tax liability. That's abuse of the system, in my book.

Maybe the Defined Contribution system of pension tax relief is being similarly abused by the rich? Pile money into your pension scheme and you take it out of the inheritance tax system and you don't pay income tax until you or your beneficiary takes money out.
There is a simple solution to prevent rich people purchasing farms to reduce their inheritance tax.
Make the cut off date for the purchase of new farms 2010 to avoid them being exempt from inheritance tax.
This would not affect families who have farmed for many years and in some cases over 100 years.
The politicians who dream up these laws are clueless and they are guided by equally clueless senior civil servants and special advisors who fall to do their homework before publishing these proposed new laws.