Democratic Congressmen Propose Estate Tax Break for Farms

Last week U.S. Representatives John Salazar and Tim Mahoney introduced the "Save the Family Farm and Ranch Act of 2007," which would exempt family farms that provide 50 percent or more of a family's income. This seems unnecessary. The American Farm Bureau Federation famously admitted to the New York Times in 2001 that they could not cite a single example of a farm that was lost due to the estate tax. Moreover, as a Citizens for Tax Justice paper explained last summer, family farms receive several additional breaks (beyond the $2 million dollar exemption in effect this year) from the estate tax and can pay off estate taxes over a period of 14 years.