Treat Landlords more like Farmers?

Treat Landlords more like Farmers?

9:32 AM, 26th November 2024, About 4 weeks ago 12

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With all the recent fuss about farmers and the changes in inheritance tax rules for them, something struck me and I wonder what thoughts other members have.

I raise this partly in jest as IN NO WAY would these thoughts be entertained owing to the low opinion had of landlords.

So, what other business has high assets and low cash (apart from a necessary contingency fund) and often quite a low income? Small portfolio landlords like myself can’t afford to get our properties managed so we are on call 24/7 though we are not out milking cows at dawn but sometimes I think that animals would be easier to manage than tenants.

When we reach a certain age we start thinking about the future of our business. If we don’t transfer the assets 7 years before we die there will be a lot of inheritance tax for our heirs to pay. This will mean they will probably have to sell up all or most of the portfolio (if they even want to carry on in this business, but that’s another matter.) No new investors are interested in buying these properties.

So properties are lost to the private rental sector at a time when they are vital for many reasons as we all know.

This begs the question – farmers are talking about farms lost to the agricultural worth of the country and possible food insecurity. What about housing insecurity? Which is the greatest threat to a good life – importing more food or having a roof over your head?

Shouldn’t landlords also be given a similarly ‘good deal’ when it comes to inheritance tax in order to maintain a thriving rental sector for years to come?

Oh, sorry, I am living in cloud cuckoo land but I thought I’d put it out there.

Helen


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Yvonne Francis

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16:13 PM, 2nd December 2024, About 3 weeks ago

Reply to the comment left by Peter Merrick at 01/12/2024 - 22:14
The problem with that idea is you will be paying interest on the mortgage. You either pay a mortgage lender or the tax man. It would be especially bad with interest rates as they are at the moment. It would still not pay even if you qualified for Equity Release as you pay it in the end. It would only work if your inheritors could do something profitable with the capital which you may not wish to do. 

GlanACC

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16:59 PM, 2nd December 2024, About 3 weeks ago

Us landlords are always bleating about something (especially if we are a landlord and a sheep farmer - hoho)

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