Top Gear and Grand Tour host turned farming campaigner Jeremy Clarkson has exposed a hole in Rachel Reeves’ tax on farmers.
The Chancellor announced in her Budget on October 30 that, from April 2026, inheritance tax relief for business and agricultural assets would be capped at £1million, with a new reduced rate of 20% being charged above that.
This has been met with passionate resistance from farmers, with multiple protests taking place in Whitehall.
Mr Clarkson, who presents the successful Amazon Prime series Clarkson’s Farm, has voiced his opposition to the policy, suggesting that life is already difficult enough for agricultural workers.
Now, he has told farmers about an “ingenious” loophole that could be used to escape Ms Reeves’ cash grab.
Mr Clarkson desribed a “complicated” way to obtain an unencumbered inheritance from a hypothetical elderly widower farmer to his son in his Sun column.
The Who Wants to be a Millionaire host suggested that the son divorce his wife so that she can then marry the father. Then, after the latter’s death, the farm would then passe to her without passing through the Chancellor’s fiscal ringer.
The scheme pays off when the son remarries his ex-wife, and mother-in-law. This means that the farm is transferred from father to son without having to pay the punitive levy.
A satisfied Mr Clarkson then enthused: “Bob’s your uncle!”
Although, this plan appeared to have an issue with it after the Cotswolds seed sewer suggested it to a farmer friend. He fretted that he couldn’t take advantage due to only having daughters.
Mr Clarkson told him to “relax”, and advised him to marry his son-in-law.
The column read: “We live in modern times. That’s allowed now.
Mr Clarkson ended by writing: “And it’d be worth it, just to see the cross look on Ms Reeves’ face.”