NCBA: Administrations Tax Proposal Threatens The Viability Of Family Farming

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association says President Biden’s proposed new capital gains tax at death would be devastating for cattle producers. NCBA’s Danielle Beck said the taxes proposed to pay for massive infrastructure and social spending “threaten the viability” of family farming and cattle operations,  especially a new tax on capital gains at death that ends the ‘stepped-up basis’.

“That proposal, in particular, would be devastating for our producers. Discontinuing this benefit is not only going to create massive tax liabilities for heirs, when they ultimately upgrade or transfer these assets, or sell the farm.  It’s also going to have unintended consequences for some of the constituencies that this administration is really trying to cater to and prioritize, like underserved and new and beginning farmers and ranchers.”

Beck said the reach of the new tax, with asset values more than tripling in the last 30-years, would be sweeping.

“That threshold of a million dollars, imposing a capital gains tax on any gain over a million, that’s going to encompass a lot of producers, even if they do qualify as, sort of a small, or very small, agricultural operation by USDA standards.”

The USDA said most farms would be exempt if the farm stays within the family. But Beck said more than one-third of the 900 million U.S. acres in production could change hands in the next two-decades, many sold for other uses. She added more taxes may only hasten that process.

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