Henry Fea comments in Spear's Magazine on UK changes to farmers' inheritance tax

In the months leading up to the last UK Autumn Budget, speculation about potential changes to inheritance tax created a sense of mounting pressure amongst agricultural businesses and family farms. Rumours and worries intensified that plans for succession, asset transfers, or restructuring could suddenly become far more costly. 

This led to many individuals treating 25th November 2025 as a deadline for action. Many gifted farming partnership interests or land to trusts, spouses or children in haste to avoid a hefty tax bill.

However, those concerns did not materialise as previously feared, with the government announcing an increase in the inheritance tax relief threshold for agricultural land from £1 million to £2.5 million, alongside confirmation that the relief can be transferred between spouses.What does this mean for the family farms who may have hurriedly made arrangements based on speculated policy changes?

Henry Fea, Partner in our Private Client team, comments on the impact of rushed tax and succession decisions – in a letter published in the Q1 2026 print edition of Spear's Magazine.

Where these individuals were accelerating transfers that they were anyway planning to make, that burnt midnight oil was not wasted. But where rushed decisions were taking without adequate consideration of all the consequences, the next few months (and indeed years) may see some people regretting their hurried actions.

Read the full letter in the Q1 print issue of Spear's Magazine.