Progressive Farmer: Farm Estate Taxes Enter the Twilight Zone
Multiple Scenarios Complicate Estate Tax Advice,
by Marcia Zarley Taylor DTN Executive Editor
In her very compelling article Ms Taylor describes the frustration being felt by family business owners (farmers like you in other words) and their professional advisors as they wait for the congress to make up its mind about their future taxation policy.
I hope you’ll click here and read her article. Not only will you come away with some of the same frustration, as if there wasn’t enough to frustrate you already, you’ll wonder what are they (congress) waiting for?
But you know the answer, they’re waiting for their turn to kick this political football again.
On the one side you’ve got the “redistribution of wealth” crowd and on the other side you’ve got the “what we’ve created is ours” folks, each with their own persuasive position.
Continuing with the sports metaphor there are also the “officials’” who are not impartial witnesses calling the shots as they see them but people with an axe to grind, a proprietary interest in the outcome.
Unfortunately their interest may not be the same as our interest.
In the estate tax quandary the officials are the politicians we’ve sent to our state capitals and to Washington DC. Individuals we elected to do what’s best for us not for them.
Unfortunately when it comes to estate taxes (they want the money) and seemingly every other piece of legislation, their objectives are the ones they strive to meet.
The only thing that really motivates them to do what’s right it sems – represent us – is their periodic fear of not being re-elected.
As Ms Taylor so ably describes, holding every farmer and small business owner captive to the political whims of Washington is a travesty. Professional advisors and business owners alike will be able to work with whatever they come up with, they just need to tell us what the law is and what it will be from now on.
Farmers need to get on with their estate planning, the most effective estate planning takes years for the benefits to be fully realized.
It is unfair, un-American really, to be under the thumb of decisions made based on year to year expedience and the whim of this or that congress.
As we enter yet another so-called ‘election season’ doesn’t it seem like the right time to let them know what we think they should be doing?
We installed a search tool he on our web site to help you locate, among other things, the contact information your representatives.
Click here to get in touch with them!
Contact them, tell them what you think about the estate tax issue, give them a perspective from RR#1.
And pass this along to your friends, get everybody up and down Main Street in contact with their elected representatives. Do that and do it often and before you know it we’ll have a real representative democracy again!
Recommended Reading
- Family Farm Succession Planning
- Seriously, What Are You Actually Doing About Your Farm Succession Planning?
- Farm Success Nowadays Requires Excellent Management Competencies
- Are You Honestly Doing Something About Your Farm Succession Planning Or Not?
- Farm Succession and Strategic Planning Group
