The House Ways and Means Committee recently passed a measure (H.R. 3301) extending expired tax incentives for biodiesel, renewable energy and short line railroads. Though farmers and ranchers support those provisions, they are adamantly opposed to one that would prematurely end the $11 million per person estate tax exemption, sending it back down to $5.5 million per person on Dec. 31, 2022, three years early. 

“The premature termination of the temporary $11 million estate tax exemption under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act will punish capital-intensive businesses like farms and ranches. Not only will the taxes imposed at death hurt farm and ranch businesses, financial uncertainty will hinder long-term business planning and estate planning costs will drain the resources of ongoing farm and ranch businesses,” AFBF President Zippy Duvall said in a letter to committee members regarding the Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2019.