When no Estate Tax is a Bad Thing – Part Two
I received two excellent comments on my post from Monday of this week regarding the cost to some farm families of not having an estate tax for this year. The comments had additional information which is all applicable for this year. The main intent of my post was to let farm families know that without proper planning, an estate in 2010 can cost your farm operation a large amount of current or future taxes.
Also, the key problem with the 2010 estate law is that effective January 1, 2011, it reverts back to the law in effect in 2001. This means that all estates larger than $1,000,000 will be subject to federal estate taxes. A quarter section of good farmland can exceed this amount alone. Congress needs to take action and soon to correct this, or thousands of farm families will be much worse off on January 1, 2011 than they were on January 1, 2009 or 2010.
I will keep you posted and keep sending me the comments.
Paul Neiffer is a certified public accountant and business advisor specializing in income taxation, accounting services, and succession planning for farmers and agribusiness processors. Paul is a principal with CliftonLarsonAllen in Walla Walla, Washington, as well as a regular speaker at national conferences and contributor at agweb.com. Raised on a farm in central Washington, he has been immersed in the ag industry his entire life, including the last 30 years professionally. Paul and his wife purchase an 180 acre ranch in 2016 and enjoy keeping it full of animals.
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