Horse riders take action over unfair tax

The ‘Rethink the Horse Tax’ campaign, launched today by a coalition of organisations representing a broad cross-section of the UK horse industry, is calling on riders, breeders and veterinarians to take action by visiting a new campaign website – www.RethinktheHorseTax.org – where they can sign an online petition to the Prime Minister.

Under the plans, horse owners would be charged on the same basis as keepers of livestock farm animals such as sheep and pigs – despite the fact that a significant proportion of horses are kept for leisure and sporting, rather than commercial activities, paid for from of income that is already taxed.

Veterinary surgeons have also made it clear that plans to create a new agency responsible for animal health could needlessly complicate the process of managing outbreaks of animal disease animal health, putting at risk the clear single line of command essential in the event of a major disease outbreak.

Campaigners have further highlighted the fact that the new body would spend much of its time collecting charges from people who own just one horse (65 per cent of horse owners), meaning that the cost of physically collecting the charge will almost outweigh the charge itself – an estimated £2.3m would be needed to collect just £4.5m from horse owners under the plans.

With costs of £14.3m to set up and millions more to maintain the new body in the coming years, campaigners have made it clear that the proposals do not represent value for money for either the equine community or the taxpayer.

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