Federal estate tax and agriculture

Washington Ag Today September 15, 2009 Federal estate taxes will be completely repealed by the end of 2009, but at present they are set to revert back to previous exemption levels at the end of 2010. A recent study by USDA Economic Research Service researchers shows that the changes in estate taxes over the last decade have made it easier for farmers to transfer their business to future generations. Researcher Ron Durst:

Durst: “The number of farms affected by the estate tax since 2000 have declined because of the increased exemption level and the level of taxes of potentially owed has also declined. However, because of the asset values and equity values in farm estates these taxes owed and the number subject to tax are more than the general population, which generally, at current levels is less than one percent of all estates end up owing any estate tax.”

But Durst also notes that the report finds that farmers and small business owners are still more likely than the general public to owe federal estate taxes, and that a larger share of farm and ranch estates could be subject to such taxes if current estate repeal legislation is allowed to expire next year.

In 2009, Federal estate and gift tax revenues are estimated at about $26 billion, accounting for only about 1 percent of total Federal tax revenue.

Washington asparagus growers harvested a smaller crop this year but it was worth more. The Washington Field Office of the National Agricultural Statistics Service says both acreage and yields were down this year compared to 2008 but asparagus prices per hundredweight were up, $76.90 compared to $57.10 last year. That put the value of this year’s Washington asparagus crop at about 18.4 million dollars.