Donald Trump sends Starmer damning indictment on IHT

President Trump said he 'abolished' taxation on agricultural business and property in the US because he understood the impact it had on generational family farming, with closures also having an impact on farmers' mental health

clock • 4 min read
US President Donald Trump said: "We ended the Estate Tax [also known as the Death Tax]. These farms do not make a lot of money. It is a way of life. They love their way of life."
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US President Donald Trump said: "We ended the Estate Tax [also known as the Death Tax]. These farms do not make a lot of money. It is a way of life. They love their way of life."

US President Donald Trump has delivered a shocking attack on the Government's proposed changes to Inheritance Tax on farm businesses and their well-being.

President Trump is currently undertaking a state visit to Scotland and he met Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer at Turnberry in Ayrshire on Monday (July 28).

On the topic of discussion was Chancellor Rachel Reeves' Autumn Budget changes to Agricultural Property Relief and Business Property Relief.

With Sir Keir by his side during a press briefing at Trump Turnberry Golf Course, the 45th and 47th US President said he thought it was wrong that farmers faced taxation on inherited agricultural assets to the extent that it had led to farm closures and severe impacts on farmers' mental health - something which farmers in the UK have said since the Autumn Budget was announced in October.

It comes at a time when the Office for National Statistics revealed that more than 6,000 UK farms have closed since July 2024, when Labour won the General Election.

READ NOW: Farmers 'pushed to the edge' as business closures spiral following Autumn Budget

During a press conference, President Trump was asked to answer a question about his view of generational farming and how taxation on inherited agricultural assets had impacted farmers in his country.

US farmers have been facing their own battles on Estate Tax when inherited agricultural property, also known as the 'Death Tax'.

On February 18, US Senate Majority Leader John Thune introduced the Death Tax Repeal Act, legislation to repeal taxation on the transfer of property when someone dies.

Politicians and farming unions in the US said the tax is a 'boot on the neck farming families' which threatened generational family farming in the country.

READ NOW: US farmers in fight to overturn 'death tax' to save family farms

President Trump told Sir Keir during the conference that he has 'abolished' the tax to save family farms in the US.

The 45th and 47th US President said: "I did something which was great. I love our farmers. In our tax bill, we have a clause which is very important because we were losing a lot of farms to the banks.

"A loving mother and father would die and left their farm to their children. They love their family and felt they were doing them a favour.

"But they had a 50% tax to pay. The land would get valued at a high number because the farms were valuable but they could not quantify it.

"They would go out and borrow money to pay the Estate Tax, what we call the death tax and they would overspend and commit suicide in many cases."

However, Sir Keir was adamant that the UK's 20% tax on inherited agricultural assets and properties was 'fairer'.

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"Our levels are nowhere near 50%," the Prime Minister said.

"It [taxation] is paid over many years and works out to an extra 2% a year over 10 years.

"It is nowhere near those levels.

"We have made sure we have a pathway for farmers which increases their year-on-year income.

"In all the deals we do, we ensure our farmers are the central focus, including the US-UK deal, because we cannot go on for farmers to say that farmers have a year-on-year income which is not sufficient.

"It is a very different situation."

But President Trump showed a remarkable amount of understanding about the rural and farming way of life in further adding why taxation on inherited agricultural property and assets should be stopped.

"We ended the Estate Tax. There is no Estate Tax on farmers," he added.

"These farms do not make a lot of money.

"It is a way of life. They love their way of life.

PLEDGE YOUR SUPPORT: Join Farmers Guardian's Save Britain's Family Farms campaign

"They love that dirt. Dirt is the most beautiful thing they have ever seen.

"Farmers do not know how to do anything else but they do not want to do anything.

"We were losing a lot of people to suicide.

"They would borrow money to pay the Estate Tax and were not able to pay it.

"We have totally ended the Estate Tax. When a parent leaves a farm to the kids, they do not have to worry about their local and possibly unfriendly banker stealing their farm."  

READ NOW: EXCLUSIVE - IHT draft legislation: What farmers need to know

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