Married farming couples should have £2.65m of inheritance tax relief when their APR/BPR allowances and nil rate bands are combined.
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Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves has given a small bit of ground to farmers with her planned changes to inheritance tax.
On Wednesday, Reeves announced the new £1m limit on agricultural property relief (APR) and business property relief (BPR) will become more flexible for married couples.
The new change, which was announced in the 2025 Autumn Budget, means any unused APR/BPR allowance can be transferred to a person’s spouse when they die.
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Making APR/BPR transferable between spouses should remove the need for farms to be divided up between spouses in order to make best use of each person’s £1m tax relief.
Instead, the new change could allow a married farmer to leave their estate to their spouse, so the spouse can effectively make full use of £2m of APR/BPR when they die.
Reeves said making APR/BPR transferable between spouses was about “balancing the taxation of these valuable assets with the realities of family life”.
However, Ulster Farmers’ Union president William Irvine described the change as “a bare minimum crumb”.
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Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves has given a small bit of ground to farmers with her planned changes to inheritance tax.
On Wednesday, Reeves announced the new £1m limit on agricultural property relief (APR) and business property relief (BPR) will become more flexible for married couples.
The new change, which was announced in the 2025 Autumn Budget, means any unused APR/BPR allowance can be transferred to a person’s spouse when they die.
Making APR/BPR transferable between spouses should remove the need for farms to be divided up between spouses in order to make best use of each person’s £1m tax relief.
Instead, the new change could allow a married farmer to leave their estate to their spouse, so the spouse can effectively make full use of £2m of APR/BPR when they die.
Reeves said making APR/BPR transferable between spouses was about “balancing the taxation of these valuable assets with the realities of family life”.
However, Ulster Farmers’ Union president William Irvine described the change as “a bare minimum crumb”.
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