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"We can't force the family farm to stay together forever.
We can't stop heirs from wanting to cash out either."

I'm just taking about keeping the Government from taxing it to force the sale.

A small farm that supports 2 families, father and his son.

They own 600 acres and rent another 600 to farm.

One million in equipment and another two million in land and livestock etc.

Each work the farm and eek out about 60k net a year. The old man dies and now the kid is going to have to come up with the taxes on 2 million?

Its a pile of crap to tax anything on that IMHO.

That would be the perfect example of the kid's old man not having the smarts to have transfered title to a trust long ago.

Things left in your name are taxable, things not yours are separate.

There are things with a good estate lawyer long ago that they could have done to avoid the sale and tax IMO.

They can't make exception laws outright regarding farming in estate tax because then you would see all these false farms popping up to pass wealth.

If they were on the ball, I think they could have already been tweaking more money in their pocket by depreciating trees and so forth.

There are ways to avoid more taxes legally, but the owners of the farm can't be coy in not getting things done and then just die.

Right now there is a 2 million deduction that goes up several more million and ends after 2009, so the best planning for someone who won't put things in a trust would be to know when to have the good sense to die! :(