The American Farm Bureau Federation recently put out an action alert for members to write their congressmen and congresswomen to ask for the continuation of stepped-up basis. They say Congress is moving forward with a $3.5 trillion fiscal year 2022 budget resolution and the spending in the legislation will need to be offset by some combination of federal spending reductions, additional deficit spending and tax increases. The potential tax increases include an increased corporate tax rate, the elimination of stepped-up basis and imposition of capital gains at death.
“Those of us who are on the tax writing committee, like I am, need to be incredibly vigilant on this issue and pull out every stop to make sure that our farmers aren’t hit with this heavy burden,” says U.S. Senator Todd Young who was in Fort Wayne this past week speaking to farmers.
“If you force farming families to be taxed on the current value, as opposed to the value of their property when they purchased it, that’s going to destroy a lot of family farms and farming operations. So, I and other farm state senators are fighting against that. Blessedly, there do seem to be a couple of democratic senators who have departed from their party on this issue. They have not been very vocal because the left flank of their party is really exercised these days.”
Farm Bureau says that without stepped-up basis, the next generation of farmers could be forced to sell the land just to pay the taxes.
Visit here to send your members of Congress a note today to protect stepped-up basis.