Sympathy has been in short supply for business tycoon Sir James Dyson after he bemoaned moves by chancellor Rachel Reeves to cut agricultural property relief (APR).
The vacuum billionaire, who is reputed to own 36,000 acres of farmland in Lincolnshire and Somerset, accused Reeves of “vindictiveness” by changing inheritance tax rules and said family businesses would be “fleeced” by the moves.
From April next year, farms and family businesses will no longer be exempt from inheritance tax after changes in the budget in October, which the Treasury forecasts will bring in an extra £500 million a year by 2030.
Business property relief and agricultural property relief will be capped at £1 million, with inheritance tax charged at 20 per cent on assets above that value.
That is half the standard 40 per cent rate for other estates, and the tax can be paid over ten years.
Dyson, whose company’s HQ is headquartered in Singapore, is believed to reside in Dodington Park in Gloucestershire, a 300-acre Georgian estate that is, apparently, large enough to fit 18,000 normal-sized homes.
He also owns a chateau in France and a townhouse in Chelsea as well as a 300-foot yacht called Nahlin.
In correspondence with The Times, he pointed out that 60 of the top 100 UK taxpayers were owners of family businesses who collectively pay £3 billion a year in taxes.
“Such companies employ 14 million people and contribute many more billions — year in, year out — funding vital public services,” he said.
“This is what Rachel Reeves will kill off with her budget, which introduces a confiscation of 20 per cent of all family companies at every generation, based not on assets (as with farming) but on a much higher figure, a theoretical multiple of future profits.
“Furthermore, the 20 per cent will be 40 per cent because families will be forced to generate the tax payment via dividends, upon which more tax is levied.
“It is only British family businesses that are being fleeced and decimated like this — private equity and publicly quoted businesses are not touched. Why this vindictiveness only towards British families?”
But sympathy for the billionaire has been in short supply on social media.
Here’s a pick of the reaction:
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