The UK’s highly controversial decision to impose a 20% tax on inherited farmland did more to get farming families talking about succession than anything ever did before, a prominent agricultural adviser has said.
Heather Wildman described chancellor Rachel Reeves’ shock announcement that from April 2026, agricultural estates worth over £1m would no longer be exempt from inheritance tax, as “brutal” and the plaster being ripped off the thorny issue of farm succession.
Wildman, a prominent succession adviser and former Nuffield scholar, was speaking at the Women & Agriculture conference in Sligo last week, where she criticised farm families for thinking solely about tax when it comes to farm succession.
“What really frustrates me is people’s approach to [farm] succession being tax – you are all manipulated by tax,” she said. “Now, don’t get me wrong, tax is important, but succession is a very different thing.”
She reminded the Irish audience that the UK’s inheritance tax rate in the 1980s had been as high as 60%.
Wildman urged Irish families to think about how delaying farm transfers until death to avoid tax could damage the farm business in the longer run by stifling investment and growth.
“The best time to get a business is when you’re in your late 20s, 30s. You’ve got ambition. If you make mistakes, you can get over them,” she explained to succession panel chair Amy Forde, news editor of the Irish Farmers Journal.
“But when you’re not inheriting that business until [the age of] 50, 60 or 70, your ambition for risk, growth, investment is less.”
The adviser urged farming families to start the conversation early and to harness the “amazing young farmers out there that are so daft and crazy to get farming”.
Heather Wildman; Ursula Kelly, managing director of Cormac Tagging; Irish Country Living rural affairs reporter Jacqueline Hogge and Irish Farmers Journal news editor Amy Forde at the succession panel at the Women & Agriculture conference in Sligo last week.\ Claire Nash
Making a succession plan should be something the older generation are proud to say they have done, she said.
“To say, I did it, I did my service, and I’m really delighted the next generation are taking over the business now, whether they’re family or whether they’re neighbours or whether they’re a contract farmer, a young farmer, there are many, many ways of doing it now,” she said.
The farming industry needs to watch how it portrays itself to potential successors and what effect it might have, the succession expert warned.
Pride and passion
“We, as an industry, need to really own this,” she urged. “When we talk about farming, do we talk about it with pride and passion and enjoyment and fun and that it is an enviable career and industry to go in? Or do we moan and groan and talk about the long hours and how hard it is and there’s no money in it?”
“We need to change the narrative. Otherwise succession is not an issue, because who would be daft enough to be a farmer?”
Honest discussion of the current farm position and how the incumbent farmer and their successor might differ on farm management and attitudes to work life balance are also key, she said.
Wildman outlined a series of questions that farm families must be able to answer from the point of view of the older generation: “What is the financial performance of the business? How is it doing? Have we got financial independence?
“Are we financially secure ourselves, as the retiring generation?
“Are we able to live independently, or will we need to be able to be looked after through the farm? And let’s be honest, how much we need? The cost of living is going up.”
And for the incoming generation, she said: “What are their expectations from the farm? Will they work full-time on the farm? Will they work off-farm? What can we get from the farm, and what do we fulfil afterwards?”
Having answered those questions, both generations can then set out a joint vision for what they want to do, but both sides must be aligned on their behaviours and values to reach that joint goal.
She said that for some people, working “26 hours a day, nine days a week” would be considered just doing a good day’s work, whereas other people might want to have a work-life balance and be able to take the kids to the sports and other things.
Ultimately, Wildman said, good succession planning is about being very open about what each side is expecting, and then talking it through.
“Sometimes it’s being patient – you have to let the exiting generation retire in their own time,” she said.
“And sometimes we have to be a little bit more bullish, because it might pose a risk to health and safety, maybe to their wellbeing, or for the livestock.
“And other times, sometimes you need to know when to walk away.”
The UK’s highly controversial decision to impose a 20% tax on inherited farmland did more to get farming families talking about succession than anything ever did before, a prominent agricultural adviser has said.
Heather Wildman described chancellor Rachel Reeves’ shock announcement that from April 2026, agricultural estates worth over £1m would no longer be exempt from inheritance tax, as “brutal” and the plaster being ripped off the thorny issue of farm succession.
Wildman, a prominent succession adviser and former Nuffield scholar, was speaking at the Women & Agriculture conference in Sligo last week, where she criticised farm families for thinking solely about tax when it comes to farm succession.
“What really frustrates me is people’s approach to [farm] succession being tax – you are all manipulated by tax,” she said. “Now, don’t get me wrong, tax is important, but succession is a very different thing.”
She reminded the Irish audience that the UK’s inheritance tax rate in the 1980s had been as high as 60%.
Wildman urged Irish families to think about how delaying farm transfers until death to avoid tax could damage the farm business in the longer run by stifling investment and growth.
“The best time to get a business is when you’re in your late 20s, 30s. You’ve got ambition. If you make mistakes, you can get over them,” she explained to succession panel chair Amy Forde, news editor of the Irish Farmers Journal.
“But when you’re not inheriting that business until [the age of] 50, 60 or 70, your ambition for risk, growth, investment is less.”
The adviser urged farming families to start the conversation early and to harness the “amazing young farmers out there that are so daft and crazy to get farming”.
Heather Wildman; Ursula Kelly, managing director of Cormac Tagging; Irish Country Living rural affairs reporter Jacqueline Hogge and Irish Farmers Journal news editor Amy Forde at the succession panel at the Women & Agriculture conference in Sligo last week.\ Claire Nash
Making a succession plan should be something the older generation are proud to say they have done, she said.
“To say, I did it, I did my service, and I’m really delighted the next generation are taking over the business now, whether they’re family or whether they’re neighbours or whether they’re a contract farmer, a young farmer, there are many, many ways of doing it now,” she said.
The farming industry needs to watch how it portrays itself to potential successors and what effect it might have, the succession expert warned.
Pride and passion
“We, as an industry, need to really own this,” she urged. “When we talk about farming, do we talk about it with pride and passion and enjoyment and fun and that it is an enviable career and industry to go in? Or do we moan and groan and talk about the long hours and how hard it is and there’s no money in it?”
“We need to change the narrative. Otherwise succession is not an issue, because who would be daft enough to be a farmer?”
Honest discussion of the current farm position and how the incumbent farmer and their successor might differ on farm management and attitudes to work life balance are also key, she said.
Wildman outlined a series of questions that farm families must be able to answer from the point of view of the older generation: “What is the financial performance of the business? How is it doing? Have we got financial independence?
“Are we financially secure ourselves, as the retiring generation?
“Are we able to live independently, or will we need to be able to be looked after through the farm? And let’s be honest, how much we need? The cost of living is going up.”
And for the incoming generation, she said: “What are their expectations from the farm? Will they work full-time on the farm? Will they work off-farm? What can we get from the farm, and what do we fulfil afterwards?”
Having answered those questions, both generations can then set out a joint vision for what they want to do, but both sides must be aligned on their behaviours and values to reach that joint goal.
She said that for some people, working “26 hours a day, nine days a week” would be considered just doing a good day’s work, whereas other people might want to have a work-life balance and be able to take the kids to the sports and other things.
Ultimately, Wildman said, good succession planning is about being very open about what each side is expecting, and then talking it through.
“Sometimes it’s being patient – you have to let the exiting generation retire in their own time,” she said.
“And sometimes we have to be a little bit more bullish, because it might pose a risk to health and safety, maybe to their wellbeing, or for the livestock.
“And other times, sometimes you need to know when to walk away.”
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