Farmers will be required to provide the names and National Insurance numbers of all the ‘accountable people’ involved in their farm business in order to claim under the 2016 Basic Payment Scheme.
A new form is being introduced by the Rural Payments Agency this year at the request of the EU.
The declaration will be a separate form to the Basic Payment application, but will need to reflect the situation as at 15 May.
It is expected that the form will have to be lodged by the autumn in advance of any payments being made under the BPS scheme.
The process will involve a declaration of the names and National Insurance numbers of all relevant people, with confirmation of their % voting rights and shareholdings, and details of any other farming business they are involved in.
Speaking at Strutt & Parker’s Rural Land Briefing, farming consultant and partner George Chichester, said the new form was being introduced so the EU would be clearer about who was benefiting from CAP funding.
“Accountable people are likely to include directors of family farming companies and also major shareholders, which probably means those with more than a 10% shareholding,” he said.
“For a sole trader and for most farming partnerships, this should be relatively straightforward.
“The difficulty will arise with regard to companies and trusts, where those deemed accountable are likely to be defined as those who have a “significant degree of control” over the business and also have a “personal financial interest” in the business – ie they are taking “financial risk”.
“Our main concern has been that, where the same individuals are involved in different farming businesses – which may be completely different and independent businesses for legal and tax purposes – there is a risk that these could be deemed to be the same business for Basic Payment purposes, due to the commonality of underlying accountable persons.
“Where such businesses are deemed to be a single business for this purpose, they could become subject to the capping of payments which applies over €150,000, and a penalty for breach of cross-compliance on one farm will then apply to all of the other farms with which that person or those persons are involved also.
“However, we are lobbying through appropriate channels to ensure that this does not occur where the underlying businesses are clearly different entities and different beneficiaries are involved.”
