Posted on 08/16/2016 8:22:28 AM PDT by maggief
A side note. In the 80’s the mission was to “save the family farm”. In one honest interaction, a congressman said to me, “we’ve been trying to save the family farm for 50 years, did we even get close?” But he couldn’t say it publicly.
If you want to save the ‘family farm’ then END inheritance taxes, aka Death Taxes. Most family farms have their ‘value’ tied up in the land itself as well as the equipment needed to farm it. There is very little liquidity aka ‘free cash’ for paying the DEATH TAXES.
If you want to save the ‘family farm’ then END inheritance taxes, aka Death Taxes. Most family farms have their ‘value’ tied up in the land itself as well as the equipment needed to farm it. There is very little liquidity aka ‘free cash’ for paying the DEATH TAXES.
Actually getting rid of the death tax is REVENUE ENHANCEMENT. I have seen farms depreciated (building and improvements) at least 3 times because of the death tax. With out the stepped of basis in the death tax, the heirs would be paying tremendous capital gains tax when they sell it. The first 1-3 million by pass any inheritance tax.
We have to get past lies, image and emotions and get to the truth.
A person will lament the death of the family farm but will not blink an eye when 1500 Carrier employees are laid off.
How interesting...
I have a farm, I need to look into that because I’ve never heard of such thing and quite frankly neither have my farm neighbors. Around here you can tell when the ‘farmer’ dies because the farm goes up for auction land and equipment so as to pay off those death taxes.
I’ sure hope you are correct though, I’ll contact my estate planner and see.
Around here you can tell when the ‘farmer’ dies because the farm goes up for auction land and equipment so as to pay off those death taxes.
Your wrong
Politicians play with special use valuation. There is more to it than this but a good overview of current status.
http://nationalaglawcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/assets/articles/rrumley_2032A.pdf
show me.
“People forget that for most of the nation’s history, farmers were not required to pay income tax. Now, many complain that farmers are dependent on ‘subsidies’.
How about no income tax at all for active working farmers?”
Newflash: not everybody gets their sweet gubmint susidies despite forced to pay income taxes. On top of everything, farmers receive taxpayer money for not producing. That is welfare.
http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/federal-gift-estate-law-2013-beyond.html
Exemption Amounts
In 2016, every person may leave or give away up to $5.45 million without owing any estate tax. As a practical matter, that means that under the new rules about 99.5% of all estates will NOT owe any federal gift/estate tax. The exemption amount is indexed for inflation each year. Unlike legislation enacted in the last several years, there is no sunset provision for these amounts; indexed for inflation, they will stay in force until Congress changes them again.
Mom can leave 5.45 million and Dad can leave 5.45 million without any death tax. That is almost 11 million of tax free inheritance. TELL ME AGAIN THAT DEATH TAXES ARE THE PROBLEM.
But note that this is federal. States are a little different but most Midwest states follow similar ideas.
Tell me where I am wrong. Uniformed opinions like yours are all too common.
Thinking your post #30 is an answer shows how out of touch you are.
I grew up on a large family farm, and for many years continued to help it grow even larger until I left in 1986. I still have family and friends who farm.
The numbers you outlined show that many family farms are being hurt by death taxes, many more crippled, and some to the point of no recovery through forced sale.
> “On top of everything, farmers receive taxpayer money for not producing.”
Is that in the form of a tax credit against taxes due or a tax writedown offsetting income earned?
Either way, it would not be an entitlement or welfare.
And note I made the statement regarding “active working” farmers and ranchers while referring to an era when no-production subsidies did not exist.
That's true, but politicians have decided that not producing is a critical part of the 'Cheap Food for Consumers' program. And they're right.
That 'Cheap Food' program has been the most successful program in the history of the world, giving American consumers the most abundant, and the cheapest, food in the entire history of the world.
It's also enslaved most farmers, and like most people dependent on the government, it's kept them poor.
A factory closes in Indiana, 1400 jobs shipped to Mexico, and it's meh they deserved it.
“That’s true, but politicians have decided that not producing is a critical part of the ‘Cheap Food for Consumers’ program.”
Help me understand why paying farmers to NOT produce crops will lead to “cheap food” for consumers. Basic economics does not add up. The only reason to do so is this: the transfer of wealth happening in this country due to the special interest lobby paying off the politicians so that taxpayer money is funneled back to the lobbyists’ clients. Farmers in this case.
Pay the politicians so that they transfer taxpayer money to the groups buying the politicians. Classic scam. But does not create “cheap food” for consumers.
Today it’s easy to forget that it wasn’t all that long ago we had relatively high food prices. Twice what we pay now and more.
Start from the same place that the politicians did more than 50 years ago; ‘how to make sure high food prices don’t become a campaign issue’.
Once your perspective and thinking has changed to the above, the rest falls into place.
The simplest way to make sure that prices stay low for long periods of time to make sure there is over-production of food.
BUT, and this is critical, not so much over production that it bankrupts the farmer.
This is the critical key; not so much over production that it bankrupts the farmer.
Since the American Farmer has the ability to bury America with food, pulling the reigns in on production is critically important in maintaining a steady and low priced food supply.
For example, corn and ethanol; This has nothing to do with whether or not it’s smart to use corn to make ethanol, but we have way too much corn.
Well, not really way too much, it’s more like way, way, way, way too much corn.
We can burn our corn to fuel our cars, heat our homes, feed our livestock, and still we have mountains of corn left over every year.
So much left over from last year that present corn prices are below the price of production, and that’s a danger not only to the farmer, but, long term, to our nations food supply as the smaller farmer is being driven out of business, and the large, non-family, farms are buying the land and controlling the food production.
Do we really want huge conglomerates controlling the food supply?
Thus the Cheap Food for Consumers Program, generally referred to as ‘The Farm Program’ is paying farmers not to grow corn. At least not as much. The market indicates that they didn’t pay enough in 2015.
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