09/26/24 Election Outcome Will Impact Family Farm Legacy

There are families who have begun to contemplate what the result of the November election will have on the tax consequences on assets and estates. We had a call with our tax advisor and accountant last week to review where we were in our estate plan and whether there were additional actions that should be taken to protect wealth and mitigate risk. The current capital gains tax rate is 23.5%. That is as good as it is going to be with the risk all on the side of that tax rate rising. Same with the estate tax exemption, currently approximately $14 mln per person and $28 mln per couple (rounded off). Not a lot of farm families will be impacted by the current level of exemption. These exceptions however were established by 2017 tax law which expires at the end of 2025. If Congress doesn’t extend them in a new tax law deal, the exemption automatically shrinks by half. If the exemption is reduced to $7 mln per person, the Urban Brookings Tax Policy Center estimates the number of estates owing money will more than double from 4000 to 9000 in 2026. ,LA (Kamala) is promoting a 40% capital gains…