Obama resurrects death tax, targets family farmers

If there’s anything more quintessentially American than baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet, it’s the American family farmer. Indeed, the American Gothic painting of a pitchfork-wielding farmer and his daughter is one of the most recognized works of art in all of American culture.

Right up there with Dogs Playing Poker!

And the only thing more certain than death and taxes is the liberal obsession with taxing death itself. Once accomplished, all that will be left is a new “baby tax” to complete governmental cradle-to-grave taxation.

Indeed, President Barack Obama’s 2016 budget proposal includes a little-noticed death tax that could help contribute to the death of many American family farms.

“Under the President’s budget, heirs would face capital gains taxes on their inheritance — even if the property is not sold — in addition to estate taxes that they may have to pay under current law,” according to a report on www.farmpolicyfacts.org. “The budget would also increase the top capital gains rate to 28 percent.”

Now, this sort of talk is the sort of thing that can make many eyes glaze over. So Farm Policy Facts provides an example to better illustrate what this means in layman’s terms.

“Take a tract of land purchased for $100,000 in the ’60s that is now worth $1 million. Under the proposal, a capital gains tax would be owed on $900,000 when the property is gifted, even though the farmer has not received any cash from the gift.”

It’d be one thing if the farm was actually sold and the heirs would have to pay taxes on the $900,000 profit in the deal. But since the heirs never received the $900,000, the taxes they would owe under Obama’s proposal would bankrupt many family farms.

As Sen. John Thune explained during a recent Senate Finance Committee hearing, under current estate tax law “the family farm isn’t taxed when it passes from one generation to the next.” However, “under the administration’s proposal, this family farm would be hit with a significant tax when the family farm is transferred to the next generation of family members.”

Indeed, if Obama has his way, the only way to avoid Obama’s farm death tax would be for American farmers to cheat death itself, an option clearly not on the table.

Of course, truth in political labeling has never exactly been a strong suit for American liberals. As such, don’t expect to see the words “farm death tax” in Obama’s proposal. Instead they’re claiming the proposal would close a so-called “trust fund loophole.”

Such propaganda, like the sales pitch for Obamacare, is misleading and deceptive. The reality is, as with your old health care plan, if you like your family farm, there’s a very good chance you’re not gonna be able to keep it.

Chuck Muth is president of Citizen Outreach, a conservative grass roots advocacy organization. He can be reached at www.muthstruths.com.