New legislation introduced in the House and Senate would repeal the estate tax. Micheal Clements shares more on the importance of the repeal to agriculture.

Clements: Lawmakers in both the House and Senate Tuesday introduced legislation to repeal the estate tax, a priority for the American Farm Bureau Federation. Pat Wolff, AFBF Senior Congressional Relations Director, says when farms are hit with the estate tax, they often have to sell assets to cover the expense, causing a burden to farmers and ranchers.

Wolff: Right now, the estate tax exemption level is high enough that most farmers and ranchers wouldn’t have to pay estate taxes. But there are people on Capitol Hill who want to roll back that exemption and then use that money to pay for their spending priorities. If that were to happen, then the estate tax problem is no longer theoretical, then it becomes real.

Clements: Wolff says the legislation in both the House and Senate would repeal the estate tax, preventing estate taxes from becoming a problem for farmers and ranchers.

Wolff: Both, the House bill that was introduced by Jason Smith of Missouri and Sanford Bishop of Georgia, that’s one Republican, one Democrat, that’s a bipartisan bill, and by Senator Thune of South Dakota in the Senate, both of those bills would just flat out repeal the estate tax. It would be gone, and hopefully that would be permanent, and it would be gone forever.

Clements: Wolff encourages farmers and ranchers to contact their members of Congress about the legislation.

Wolff: And tell them the impact that estate taxes have on their operation. This bill is a repeat of previous Congresses, so its being introduced with a lot of supporters already. So, if a farmer or rancher’s member is already on the bill, thanks would be in order rather than a request to co-sponsor the legislation.

Clements: Micheal Clements, Washington.

Read the Market Intel on estate taxes.