[count-your-change]

Therein lies the value of planning ahead. Most farms are privately owned but could be converted to corporations with the heirs in control. When the parents are gone the corporation lives on.

[ccmay]

And corporate stock is subject to the gift tax and death tax. Pay up sucka, the people need their Obamaphones.

[Tammy8]

True, but then you lose other benefits that are in place for individual/family owned farms. One major drawback is the question of whether minors in the family are allowed to legally work on a “corporate owned” business...if they can’t work on the family ranch/farm growing up they don’t learn the necessary skills/work ethic to be able to take over the business.

[Steamburg]

Therein lies the value of planning ahead. Most farms are privately owned but could be converted to corporations with the heirs in control. When the parents are gone the corporation lives on.

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But, what would the writers of this article have to complain about? There is value in understanding the system. Only emotional ties get in the way. The only down side is that some lawyer will get a fee to cut the paper.

[LaMudBug]

“Therein lies the value of planning ahead. Most farms are privately owned but could be converted to corporations with the heirs in control. When the parents are gone the corporation lives on.”

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The estate tax is a tax on EVERYTHING you own and/or control at the time of death, including owned life insurance policies, with the tax being due and payable in nine months from date of death of the owner of the taxable property. So, if you convert your ownership from the land to shares of stock, you will still be paying an estate tax on the value of the stock in the corporation.

Owned farm land worth $10 million, owned corporate stock worth $10 million, the tax is the same. Should the owner of the land, converted to stock, gift the stock to kids, then a GIFT tax on the value of the gift of the stock, comparable to the estate tax will be assessed by the government.

Hopefully, you are not wandering around rendering estate tax advice, since you do not know squat.

[Last of the Mohicans]

With the real estate in a family limited partnership or LLC? It’s not that hard to avoid it.