Saving Family Farms from Eliminated Step-Up in Basis

Authors

Sydney Burckart

Abstract

To achieve tax equality, lawmakers have proposed eliminating the step-up in basis for assets passing through an estate at death. Closing the loophole would indeed tax the rich, but it would also impact middle-class Americans, including full-time farmers. Farmers would incur large tax liability, inhibiting their ability to earn a living exclusively on the farm. Eliminating step-up in basis is a volatile issue that lawmakers have considered implementing to achieve tax equality. This article will present the history of the step-up in basis debate and analyze past efforts to close the step-up in basis loophole. That history informs recent tax amendment propositions and their problematic effect on full-time farmers. Finally, the article proposes alternatives and protections for full-time farmers so that the agricultural community will not be adversely affected by a measure intended to achieve tax equality.

First Page

170

Recommended Citation

Sydney Burckart, Saving Family Farms from Eliminated Step-Up in Basis, 6 Bus. Entrepreneurship & Tax L. Rev. 170 (2022).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.missouri.edu/betr/vol6/iss1/11