Horse Tax - You only have until 30th June... 22 DAYS!!!!

I read several peices on the DEFRA website & generally they weren't clear on horses although one of them said they were considering including horses. That just makes the whole consultation meeting fiasco worse as you can't tell what they are planning easily from the published documents. Letter to MP will be sent today. I can't work out how they are going to collect it - one of my horses passports isn't recorded on NED & another is down as the wrong colour on NED. Perhaps I should just say "If you can find the black mare you can have my tenner".
 
All I can say is that we all need to write to DEFRA with our objections or queries and to our local MP's. I will get an email off to my local MP today or tomorrow (depending on how much the boss is watching!!!) LOL!!!
 
For anyone near Worcestershire it's not too late to attend a meeting as there's one in Stourport this afternoon. You are meant to have 'registered' (I have) so not sure if they let you in if your name's not on the list.

The proposed cost of £10.50 is the very least of it - the BIG cost will be the compulsory insurance part of the deal. If your horse is insured now, then exotic diseases and compulsory slaughter are almost certainly excluded! If you HAVE to get insurance for exotic diseases, I suspect the cost will be BIG!
 
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If any of you have fully read the proposal you will know that the tax that they are looking to impose only applies to livestock ie: cattle, sheep, pigs etc.

HORSES WILL NOT BE INCLUDED IN THE PROPOSAL as they are classed as domesticated animals!!!!

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Please read pages 21/22 of the Impact Assessment where the costs are calculated for horses to arrive at the £10.50
http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/new-independent-body-ah/impact-assessment.pdf
 
Thanks Gingernags!!!
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Right, this is what I'm sending to my MP but I've already written to him once. Feel free to borrow bits but try not to send it too identical!

"Further to the email I sent you on regarding Equine Infectious Anaemia and the threat to UK horses by the exploitation of the Tripartite Agreement, I would appreciate you looking into a somewhat linked issue of the DEFRA - “Consultation on a new independent body for animal health: A modern governance and funding structure for tackling animal diseases”

Currently in both legal terms and for business and planning – horses are classed as domestic animals and not agricultural animals. This means to keep horses on agricultural land, you have to apply for change of use, and working with, breeding and owning horses does not allow you to live in or buy housing with agricultural ties. A decision needs to be made – either horses are classed as agricultural and then subject to the same planning and housing rules and properties with stabling and equine business rated on the same lines (not rating indoor schools on the same level as cinemas – per seat they would hold – when the whole purpose is to ride in it not sit in it!) OR they are domestic pets and not subject to the proposed new charges.

I quote

“Coverage
6. It is proposed that keepers of the following principal farm animals:
• cattle;
• sheep;
• pigs (including farmed wild boar);
• and poultry (including farmed game birds)

will be included as, potentially, will keepers of goats, farmed deer, bison, camelids (llamas, alpacas etc) and horses. The guiding principle will be to include animals susceptible to diseases in which the public sector intervenes for the purposes of undertaking measures to prevent, control and eradicate such diseases. This may mean that the scope of the species covered could change over time.

7. All animal keepers, regardless of whether they keep animals commercially, for hobby or leisure reasons or for research would, in principle, be subject to the requirement to register under the scheme.”

So horses, which are classified as pets, are possibly to be included with farm animals - though other pets such as dogs and cats etc are not. There is no logic to this decision.

Further I would like to know why is the proposed amount for horses (if included in the plans) over twice that of a cow? Current suggested figures in the consultation paperwork show the rates as:

Dairy £4.80
Beef £1.20
Combined Cattle* £2.50
Sheep £0.09
Pigs £0.82
Poultry £0.04

Yet the amount per year per horse is proposed at over £10. Why? Foot and mouth and Bluetongue are far more prevalent and likely, and most agricultural livestock – cows, pigs, sheep – are kept as commercial stock. Horses in the main are kept as pets and are big money drains, not money makers – and of the two exotic diseases mentioned for horses – we have not had outbreaks. Foot and Mouth and Bluetongue we have – and they don’t affect horses and are not transmitted by horses.

I already insure my horse, and pay tax on that insurance; pay VAT on all the provisions for that horse – feed, rugs, saddle/bridle, shoes; pay rates on the stables I keep the horse at (not mine, I don’t own land); pay tax on my wages of an entirely unrelated job that pays for the horse. I pay tax and insurance on my car (very high car tax to be able to tow a trailer – its not a 4 x 4 just as a fashion statement, I need it to access farm lanes in snow and tow loads of hay etc. and in fact it is a 2 wheel drive and I rarely use the 4 wheel drive) and insurance on my trailer to be able to take the horse anywhere – and then pay an extortionate amount of revenue on the fuel to do so.

I really do wish people in government would realise, the horse owing general public are not all toffs and aristocrats and landed gentry with lots of money. As a representative example - I work in an office, in fact you may recall I interviewed to work for you last year. My friends at the yard where we keep our horses work in call centres, supermarkets, hospitals (nurse not consultant!) – at basic levels not management. We have teachers, kids whose parents drive taxis, grooms on minimum wages. We don’t earn a lot, generally I scrimp and save and the horses get new shoes and well fed when I do without and live on beans on toast at the end of a month. I don’t know anyone in your constituency who lives here and keeps horses and is landed gentry.

Because I’m a law abiding citizen, both my horses are passported (at significant cost to me already), and above the current requirements – both are microchipped – again not cheap. This is recorded on the NED database. There is no point re-inventing the wheel and creating yet another database when funds should be invested in the current one to iron out the wrinkles rather than spending more on a new one.

With reference to exotic horse diseases - the previously mentioned Equine Infectious Anaemia (also known as Swamp Fever) is not currently in the UK. I believe we are better preserving the disease free status of the UK – being an Island it is relatively easy! An end needs to be put to the French dealers exploiting the loophole of the Tripartite Agreement and the current importing of these so called “rescues” with no health checks needs to be ended immediately.

Current legislation would mean destruction of horses that caught EIA, £1 compensation and insurance exclusion – they would not pay out. If one of my horses contracted it, it would have cost me thousands of pounds for nothing, and the loss of a pet that I consider to be the nearest thing to a child I will ever have. It is unimaginable. I would be devastated if we allowed the disease to spread here when it is preventable.

The Tripartite Agreement was for the movement of racehorses and competition horses – and that it is now being exploited by French dealers selling sob stories to UK victims to “rescue” horses destined for meat – is a disgrace and needs to be settled NOW. Sub standard, ill and potentially carrying EIA cases are getting through with no checks, countries rife with EIA are re-passporting horses when they get them to France, to slip them into this lucrative stream of horses being sent over here. This disease is spread through parasites like lice, which are very easy to transfer to another animal and rife in poor animals. No matter how well meaning – we do not want these horses here risking ours. We have enough welfare cases of our own without importing more!

In addition, current monitoring of horses here is impossible and it shouldn’t be. Many stolen horses, especially coloureds, are shipped out to Ireland and the USA as passports can and are being re-issued - this should not be possible. Horses are not scanned for microchips, no-one checks the horse going out/coming in even matches descriptions.

The way forward as I see it:–

1. Compulsory microchipping of ALL horses – no-one exempt other than wild native ponies and these microchips tied to passports to prevent illegal re-passporting and theft.

2. Tripartite agreement to be reviewed to protect our animals – a horse must have clear Coggins test and full health and document check before being allowed into the UK unless it is a competing animal with proof of entries etc.

3. An end to the confusion between what is agricultural stock/livestock and what is a pet or domestic animal – make a decision one way or the other to remove the inequality.

4. Stop taxing us to death and realise a lot of your working class voters are horse owners and we are not privileged upper classes no matter what the Daily Mail say!

I will copy the main part of this letter to the DEFRA department dealing with the consultation buy I would appreciate it if you can look into this yourself and pass my concerns on.

If necessary I can back this up with a hundred or two hundred or so signatures from your constituency alone, as I say there are around 20 livery yards in the x area alone.

Thank you for your time and I trust you will deal with this appropriately."

How's that then?
 
I've just emailed the following MP's:



David Cameron – Leader of Conservative Party

Nick Herbert – Shadow thing for Food and Rural & Agricultural Affairs etc etc

Michael Wills – Labour MP

Anne Snelgrove – Labour MP

Robert Buckland – Conservative Candidate



My brian hurts now

Wonder if I'll get any reponses



Will let you know if I get anything back.
 
I nearly was, was in the last 2 being interviewed by my MP last year to be his PA/Office Manager - but seeing as he's labour (they never asked me how I voted luckily!!) I'm glad I didn't end up with the job or I'd be looking at the dole queue any time soon!
 
Gingernags, I've seen/heard it all now - someone else to write to me thinks!!!!

East London MP Jim Fitzpatrick appointed minister for the horse
Abigail Butcher, H&H news editor
10 June, 2009

Minister for the horse, Jane Kennedy, resigned on Monday after refusing to pledge her support for Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
In her place, Mr Brown has appointed East London MP Jim Fitzpatrick.
Mr Fitzpatrick, a former parliamentary under secretary of state at the Department of Transport, takes over as minister for food, farming and the environment. The 57-year-old football fan also takes over as minister for the horse.
In her year in office, Jane Kennedy openly pledged her support for the horse industry, but in reality had the chance to achieve very little. Sudden ill health prevented her from addressing the National Equine Forum in London in March — a much-awaited chance for the industry to pose questions to the minister.
In her place, Jim Fitzpatrick appears on the surface to be as far removed from horses, farming and the rural environment as is possible.
MP for Poplar and Canning Town, Mr Fitzpatrick moves up from his role at the Department of Transport. He was previously parliamentary under secretary of state at the Department of Trade and Industry.
The Glasgow-born MP has lived in London since 1973, and is a former fire-fighter.
On his website, www.jimfitzpatrickmp.co.uk, the new minister for food, farming and environment lists his interests as "anti-poverty, regeneration, anti-racism and fire" and his hobbies as "West Ham United FC, golf, reading, TV/films and Millwall RFC."
He also states: "I am here to promote the East End of London"
There is no mention of any interest in rural affairs on his website at all.
After her resignation on Monday, Jane Kennedy told leading news agency The Press Association: "All of my friends know about my unhappiness with the style of politics Labour are exhibiting.
"If you are a minister in Government you have to support the Prime Minister that appoints you. You are asked 'do you want to be in government?'. The straight answer is yes. But could I support the Prime Minister? I could not."
A spokesman for Gordon Brown said he regretted Ms Kennedy's decision.
Hilary Benn will continue as Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
 
Quoting my mother from another forum:

I have just spoken to Emaleen in the Welfare at the BHS and they are NOT supporting this so DEFFRA lies yet again.
There is a lot of meetings and work going on at the BHS behind the scenes.
I have mailed Giles Chichester, Prospective tory mp Hannah Foster. Its quite easy to do go to their websites and click on the contact no effort needed so get mailing we are running out of time and dont want to be stuck with a 10.50 tax because people didnt bother to respond.
 
I made notes after DEFRA meeting

DEFRA ''HORSE TAX'' MEETING 4.06.09 Carlisle Shepherds Inn



Attendees approx 14 including Cumbria NFU, Cumbrian vets, Country Landowners Assoc, 1 Large poultry producer, retired farmer, myself, press



Proposed Cost Sharing for exotic diseases preparedness

Andrew Bishop presented for DEFRA



Tax payer should not completely fund costs for eg FMD

Anderson Report had said a levy should be imposed

Germany and Netherlands already have cost sharing

There would be a compulsory register of all livestock keepers who have to take out compulsory insurance for unbudgeted exotic disease outbreak costs.

DEFRA is in talks with insurance companies as to how this would be done.

For owners with just a few sheep, hens or a single horse the cost of collection could outweigh the levy so a threshold flat fee may be applied



A completely new Animal Health body to be set up although Andrew suggested DEFRA staff would just step across to the new Dept. This was met with disgust from NFU—jobs for the boys

Animal Welfare to stay under Ministerial Control—this was argued by the vets present and NFU and to quote ‘’Animal Welfare went out of the window during FMD’’

Vets said Welfare problems and Disease run together



I put forward that horse owners would be unwilling to pay this charge if we did not see DEFRA tightening up on the Tripartite agreement--ie allowing horses into UK from dubious sources without health checks. This was written onto the discussion notes.

The poultry producer was in total agreement that cross border checks were lax--he regularly imported thousands of day old chicks and shipments had never been checked for health status.



Attendees were split into 2 workshops

1 Discuss the new body—management—separate it from politics

Scope, who will be on the board, operation, accountability, status

2 Levy Exercise, who will be affected, how will it work, payments, minimum threshold—flat payment or exclude ‘hobby’ farmers, payment and enforcement—loss of entitlements



This levy is coming and will probably be in force by April 2012



DEFRA are in talks with devolved Governments so we will not escape in Scotland or Wales



An annual headage charge for horses has been initially set at £10.50



BHS and BHIC have a meeting with DEFRA scheduled for 24th June—the feeling is that this charge is too heavily biased against horse owners who are being asked to pay a large percentage of the total sum and is unfair. At no time during the preceding consultations was the equine industry consulted or equine disease mentioned.



NFU Cumbria came out very strongly against the whole concept saying farming could not afford this and if they were allowed to ‘’sort out TB in cattle’’ this sum of £22 million could be made from savings.

NFU could not understand the difference between a dairy cow and proposed beef cow levy--based on output.

Vets also strongly against the principle as farmers cannot pass these costs on to consumers.

The poultry producer would pay out £28,000 per annum under the levy system--he said businesses would apply 'creative accounting' to reduce output figures!



If we do not respond to the consultation the proposals will go through as written and once started the annual levy is more likely to increase rather than decrease.

http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/new-independent-body-ah/index.htm
 
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But if you put it down to personal thoughts, if my horse caught it here from failures in the system - it WOULD have to be destroyed as things stand - my pet that I bred - because of someone elses stupidity. If they changed the rules to be as you say, you could never compete again or hack out in case you came across one that was not infected? Why on earth would we keep a horse then?

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I agree, it's not ideal, and it's awful that people manage to circumvent the rules like that and endanger other peoples' horses. But if I had a horse that tested positive, and I had a chance for it to go to a good home and live a normal life with others of its kind, I'd take that chance, I think, even though it meant losing the horse.

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If you have a horse that tests positive for EIA in the UK it is immediately destroyed.. We do not have it in this country as yet & I pray it stays that way..

This is why the TPA needs tightening to stop horses being imported from France/Ireland without blood/health tests
 
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