Few farmers pay federal estate taxes

The USDA estimates that only 0.6 percent of farms currently in business would someday have to pay estate taxes. For example, if every farm in the U.S. went out of business in 2016, roughly 38,000 of those farms would have to pay taxes according to USDA’s Economic Research Service. Today, any married couple with less than $11 million is assets is exempt from federal estate taxes and if the land will remain in agriculture for another 10 or more years, there’s an addition $1 million special use valuation. As a result, fewer than 20 farmers per year are required to pay any amount of federal estate taxes, according to John Dillard an attorney at Washington D.C. Law firm, OFA Law.  So why does the death tax get brought up in Congressional debate almost every year? Dillard says, “Billionaires are exploiting America’s sympathy for farmers in this debate.”