Farmers need to ensure they have no ‘hidden assets’ when it comes to planning for their family’s future, a specialist rural accountant has advised.
With significant changes to Inheritance Tax (IHT) due to hit farmers from April 2026 with proposed alterations to Agricultural Property Relief and Business Property Relief, farmers and landowners are looking at ways of negating potentially hefty tax bills for future generations.
Will Robinson, a manager at Cumbria-based Saint & Co Chartered Accountants specialising in farming, said some farmers are unaware of exactly what assets and land they own – and what their tax liabilities may be on this property.
Will said: “A lot of my time lately has been spent with farmers identifying exactly what land and property they own, because there are many cases when they are unsure of whose name some assets are held in.
“For example, I spoke with one farmer who owned nearly 30 plots of land he had acquired over the years, and there were some fields amalgamated with others, but still had separate titles and he wasn’t sure whose name they were all held in.
“Before farmers can really delve into succession planning, they must take full stock of everything in their possession to make sure all is accounted for, and there are no hidden assets and therefore no nasty surprises when it comes to tax bills.
“Farmers and landowners don’t always necessarily think about the real value of their land as they plough through their daily workload. But it’s important they work out what they own so they can make decisions on how to best negate IHT bills and what practices to implement, whether gifting to a loved one before death or continuing as they are.”
When farming families pass on their possessions to benefactors, there is also a need to understand what has been gifted to them, Will added.
He said: “Sometimes people don’t realise what assets they actually have because they haven’t always told. If a father gifts his land to be shared equally by three children but not all have them been informed, then this can cause confusion about who owns what.
“The next generation of farmers don’t always know what their parents own until it has been passed down through their Will on death, and that can mean people have assets to sort with short notice.
“Conversations have already started about gifting possessions to children before death. There are ways to minimise the impact IHT bills will have on the family farm in the future, and it’s advisable that the conversations around this start sooner rather than later.”
Saint & Co has offices throughout Cumbria and Dumfries & Galloway, and provides an extensive range of tax and accountancy services to businesses, organisations and charities operating across all sectors.
