I have, today, signed a contract for a book ‘Poole on Farming’. To me this is the most interesting and important trade of all, and the nexus between community, wildlife, landscape and food make this critical now as we face disruptive changes to our society from many directions.
The economics of farming and landed estates is changing with the evolution of farm payments, new opportunities for utilising and offsetting Natural Capital and Carbon along with new Biodiversity Net Gain rules in the Environment Act 2021. All of these will be surveyed in detail with thoughts about how these can be applied on landscape level by landowners and farmers working together.
By its nature, farming has a strong community rooted in the soil. It is one of the few trades where people work together across businesses, whether by partnership, contract farming arrangements, shared assets or infrastructure through formal cooperative structures like those provided by the Cooperative and Community Benefit Society Act 2014. I will be giving detailed instruction about all these together with pro-forma documents.
And of course all the special tax and accounting rules which I am sure you expect from me – averaging, herd basis, losses, capital allowances, VAT, and how capital gains tax, inheritance taxes work in the most common transactions with detailed guidance.
There will be thoughts on incorporation with all the advantages and disadvantages that a company can bring. Yes to R & D and land remediation relief, but what about ATED and benefits in kind. And that burning question: should the land go in?
And finally looking at various ways to diversify the use of the land and what impact this has on the business structure.
Get ready for publication in early to mid 2023.
And yes, I did pick up Oliver Rackham’s seminal work for 50p!