NFU rejects Treasury claim that 72% of farms won’t pay inheritance tax

Rachel Reeves’s plans to remove the Agricultural Property Relief inheritance tax exemption from farms worth more than £1m have provoked fury across the farming industry. Photograph: Tonywestphoto/Getty Images

The government argument that just 28% of farmers will be affected by the new inheritance tax rules is in direct conflict with data produced by the its own environment department, according to the head of the farmer’s union, as the row over inheritance tax for farmers continued.

The announcement in Rachel Reeves’s budget last week of plans to remove the Agricultural Property Relief inheritance tax exemption from farms worth more than £1m has been met with a storm of fury from across the farming industry and suggestions of “militant protest”.