An Unlimited Estate Tax Exemption for Farmland: Unnecessary, Open to Abuse, and Likely to Hurt, Rather than Help, Family Farmers

Publication Date: October 2007

Publisher: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (Washington, D.C.)

Author(s): Aviva Aron-Dine

Research Area: Banking and finance

Keywords: Economic projections; Fiscal future; Food supply; Economic inequality

Type: Report

Abstract:

Advocates of estate tax repeal have turned the tax’s impact on farms into a central issue, and many on both sides of the estate tax debate have expressed interest in modifying the tax to provide still greater protection for farmers. This desire has led some policymakers to support an unlimited estate tax exemption for all farmland. However well intentioned, this approach to the issue of farms and the estate tax is misguided.