Stressing the multiple benefits of maintaining family farms and ranches, a coalition of California farm organizations has endorsed tax-reform legislation that would exclude farm assets from the federal estate tax.
The Family Farm Preservation Estate Tax Act, H.R. 3524, would exempt farm and ranch assets from estate taxes as long as the property remains as a family agricultural operation. Introduced by Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Napa) and Rep. John Salazar (D-Colorado), the bill would also exclude land enrolled in a qualified conservation easement from the estate tax.
Tax-reform legislation approved in 2001 will phase out the estate tax entirely in 2010, but will expire in 2011, when estate-tax rates would return to their pre-2001 level. Farm organizations say that would severely damage a farmer’s ability to pass a farm or ranch to the next generation.
Groups supporting the bill include the California Association of Winegrape Growers, California Tomato Growers Association, and the Wine Institute.
For more information, visit cfbf.com.
Biz Briefs is compiled by Staff Writer Jeremy Thomas. Information should be sent to the Sun via fax, e-mail, or mail.
This article appears in Sep 3-10, 2009.
