05/08/06 Cattle call to end death tax

American Rancher May 8, 2006 The U.S. Senate is scheduled to vote this month on full and permanent repeal of the estate tax. The National Cattlemen's Beef Association is urging members to call Senators Tuesday, May 9th in what it calls a national "Cattle Call to End the Death Tax." R.J. Jolly - a rancher from Colorado - has personal experience with the estate tax and he says it is time for it to end. Jolly: "It makes planning incredibly difficult. Our experience here is that we have been through it with my great grandfather, my grandfather and then when my father died and my great uncle. And you end up doing all this planning and it cost a lot of money and it takes a lot of high-dollar accountants and attorneys and then you pay taxes on top of that anyway. And when you don't have any cash sitting around, which we don't we are fairly equity wealthy and cash poor, and you end up having to borrow money to pay your inheritance taxes and we have had to do that three times." Some lawmakers support raising the exemption threshold on the estate tax rather than repeal, but Jolly says that isn't likely to provide the necessary relief. Jolly: "I have heard the number four or five million battered around and I don't think a lot of people realize what some of these ranches are worth. But that is not something you will realize unless you sell and they don't want to sell and they shouldn't be forced to sell because of taxes." And Jolly says if ranchers are forced to sell it is likely the land will be developed and the open space lost. I'm Bob Hoff.