WASHINGTON — On Feb. 13, Representatives Randy Feenstra (R-Iowa) and Sanford Bishop (D-Ga.) introduced the Death Tax Repeal Act, with Senators Kevin Cramer (R-ND) and John Thune (R-SD) introducing a Senate companion bill. The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) supported the bills, as the group attributed one of its top priorities this year to repealing the federal estate tax, also referred to as the “death tax.”

“The death tax isn’t pro-growth — it’s a death warrant for family businesses,” said Buck Wehrbein, president of NCBA and Nebraska cattleman. “It’s the top threat to the future of family farms and ranches, and US cattle producers need relief from this insidious tax.”

Relief on the federal estate tax was provided in 2017 with the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which doubled the amount exempt from the tax and tied it to inflation. The tax cuts are currently set to expire at the end of 2025.

If the federal estate tax exemption reverts to pre-2017 limits, coupled with the rapid inflation of farmland values, many more family farms, ranches and business would be subject to the death tax, NCBA explained.

“Family-owned farms and ranches operate on limited cash flow, with most of their value tied up in land,” Buck said. “As farmland and pastureland values rise, more producers will be hit with this punitive tax, forcing them to sell assets or take on debt, sometimes paying the death tax multiple times. In a recent NCBA tax survey, 33% of respondents had paid the tax, and 35% of them had paid it more than once. This is not a tax on the rich, it is a boot on the neck of family businesses.”

NCBA is one of the more than 230 organizations to have voiced support for the Death Tax Repeal Act, which would permanently repeal the federal estate tax, which imposes a tax on the transfer of property, land and other assets from a deceased family member to heirs or family farms and small businesses.

“Farmers and ranchers face unpredictable challenges from changing weather to fluctuating markets,” said Zippy Duvall, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation. “The tax code shouldn’t add to the uncertainty.”

With approximately 95% of small businesses, farms and ranches in the United States being owned by individuals and families, the legislation would alleviate multigenerational producers and business owners from paying a “devastating tax on the death of a family member,” Feenstra’s office said.

“The death tax is an egregious double tax that unfairly targets American family farms and small businesses and directly threatens long-held farming traditions in rural Iowa and across the country,” Feenstra said. “It is ridiculous that the federal government sends grieving families a massive tax bill when a loved one passes away. I introduced the Death Tax Repeal Act to put an end to this double taxation, help our farmers and small business owners pass their businesses onto the next generation, and ensure that we can keep our family traditions alive across America.”