Ag Estate Tax

 No one likes paying taxes, but for farmers and ranchers the estate tax is a serious threat to the future of their farms and ranches.  If you’re like most Americans, you’ve had the tax man on your mind recently.  But farmers and ranchers say the estate tax is something they have to worry about all the time.

“It’s time to put estate taxes to rest.  You know, no one likes to pay taxes, but this is a special circumstance.  This is an immoral, unfair tax particularly to farmers and ranchers who want to pass on their farms and ranches to the next generation and what is happening with the estate tax is making it very difficult and costly for families to plan on how to do that.” American Farm Bureau President Bob Stallman says the uncertainty comes from the fact that the estate tax rate and exemption changed nine out of the past 10 years…something he says congress needs to fix.

 “The first thing we’re asking congress to do is to provide some permanence.  You know, put the law in place and leave it in place.  Don’t play these budget games by saying this is only going to last for a couple of years and then revert back to something else.  Give us something we can count on.  And what we really want and think would be fair for farmers and ranchers, is $5 million per person exemption and a 35 percent tax rate and then indexing those value to inflation to offset the impact of inflation over time.”

 Stallman says there is a good reason farmers and ranchers need the higher exemption level. “As we say in agriculture, farmers and ranchers are always land rich and cash poor and that’s what causes the problem if you don’t have a high enough exemption, you have to sell part of that land to provide the cash to pay the estate tax, which we think is unfair.”

 When combines cost a quarter of a million dollars and land prices escalate, that makes sense.